Daily temperature swings can seriously hamper a region’s economic growth.

Much of the previous research on climate economics has focused on the effects of shifts in annual average temperature. Leonie Wenz at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and her colleagues instead examined day-to-day temperature variation — how much daily temperature deviates from the monthly average. Such variability can affect economic factors such as farm output and business investments.

The team analysed 4 decades of climate and economic data for more than 1,500 regions across the world. The results showed that a 1 °C increase in temperature variability in any given year decreased the rate of regional economic growth by 5% on average, but the impacts varied widely on the basis of a country’s wealth and climate.

Low-latitude, low-income locations, such as Indonesia and Colombia, fared worse than high-income nations. They also fared worse than regions — especially those in the northern hemisphere — where the changing seasons cause large temperature variation.

The results suggest that temperature variability is a previously overlooked factor that could exacerbate global inequality, the authors say.