Seasonality and consumer confidence

This research empirically investigates whether consumer confidence is affected by seasonal daylight fluctuations. Cross-country panel regressions are run with two different datasets. It is found that both solar elevation and sunlight duration positively affect consumer confidence. The presence of country and year-by-month fixed effects as well as controls for the business cycle help rule out alternative explanations. A one standard deviation increase in solar elevation or sunlight duration is associated with a 0.03–0.04 SD increase in consumer confidence.