I just finished my first cost-benefit analysis on daylight saving time as a policy analyst intern for Scioto Analysis. During these last few months, I faced the ups and downs as anyone does when doing research.
One minute I was finding rich data on the topics I need to calculate impact and the next, I found a report that conflicted with my past findings. While this was a frustrating process, when I was able to pull together all the pieces into the report, I was amazed by the amount of research that went into the study. This experience taught me a lot about my time management, research and writing skills.
One of the most important parts of building a cost-benefit analysis is choosing which impacts to calculate. During my early research, I was able to identify some impacts that are already well known to be affected by daylight saving time.
Energy was an impact that first emerged when I began to look into why daylight saving time was initially implemented in the 1900s. There were many conflicting reports about the true effects of daylight saving time on energy and I decided to use a report done on Indiana as I felt it was applicable to Ohio.
I was aware that daylight saving time added another hour of sunlight so my assumption was that we saved energy during this time but my research showed the opposite. I hadn’t taken into account the use of air conditioning or other energy sources whose usage increases during the extra sunlight and heat in the summer. This impact showed me that we make assumptions about things we don’t know much about because it makes sense to us.
Another impact that surprised me was the benefit of decreased crime. Crime was not in my original list of impacts until I came upon a report that claimed that the extra hour of sunlight saved the U.S $12 million every day it occurred. As I began to investigate, it amazed me the rate of crime reduction during daylight saving time because there was less darkness in which crime may occur. While the impacts of energy and car crashes had the odds stacked against daylight saving time, crime brought daylight saving time effectiveness back to the discussion.
During this experience, I realized how important cost benefit analysis reports are to policymakers and vital to making the right decisions. Policymakers have to decide on many issues and without having the research to assist them, those decisions can be disastrous. These reports help provide evidence from a wide range of sources and collect all the data in an easy to read way.
When I was deciding what impacts I wanted to investigate and include in the report, I felt a lot of responsibility. It did make me realize the pressure that policymakers deal with when making decisions that not only affect their own constituents but also potentially the country. I want to thank Rob Moore and Michael Hartnett for giving me this opportunity and all their support and wisdom during this process.
This blog post was written by Scioto Analysis Summer Intern Amy Townend. Amy is currently studying economics at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.