The Qatar Centre for Global Banking & Finance welcomes Associate Professor Christian Matthes from Indiana University to present this virtual research seminar on 'Extreme Weather and the Macroeconomy'.

Abstract
We investigate the macroeconomic effects of changes in extreme weather in the United States over the past sixty years by incorporating the Actuaries Climate Index (ACI) into a smooth transition vector autoregressive analysis of the United States economy. The ACI tracks changes in the distribution of extreme temperatures, heavy rainfall, drought, high wind, and sea level. While the effects of extreme weather events are negligible at the beginning of the sample, they become more significant later: An increase in the index now persistently reduces the growth rate of industrial production while raising the unemployment rate and inflation.

About the Speaker
Christian Matthes works at the intersection of macroeconomics and econometrics. His main research interests are the econometric analysis of dynamic equilibrium models, the development of linear and non-linear time series models for macroeconomic data, as well as the study of equilibrium models with imperfect information.
A native of Germany, Christian received his undergraduate degree at Goethe University in Frankfurt before coming to the US for his doctoral studies at NYU, where he received MA and PhD degrees.
Prior to working at Indiana University, Christian worked at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona from 2010-2013 and at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s research department from 2013 until 2019.

About the Virtual Seminar Series:
The Qatar Centre for Global Banking and Finance's virtual seminar series provides a forum for researchers at Central Banks and Academics working on central banking issues to present their research. Seminars take place fortnightly and last one hour, including time for questions from attendees. For more information on the next seminar visit:
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/qatar-centre-global-banking-finance