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March 30, 2006
I suppose we could just use local sidereal time
Michael Downing writes about the convoluted history of Daylight Savings Time in the Wall Street Journal:
In a study of Nixon's failed experiment, the Department of Transportation concluded that wintertime daylight saving might have the potential to save 100,000 barrels of oil a day. In 1986, citing this potential as a guarantee, Congress extended daylight saving from six to seven months, and promised reductions in traffic fatalities and crime as well. These claims reminded North Carolina Rep. Charles Rose of a Native American's definition of daylight saving -- "the white man cutting an inch off the bottom of his blanket and sewing it to the top to make it longer."
Economically speaking, the reason that Daylight Savings Time has the effect that it does in changing our schedules relative to the sun is due to real rigidity (the desire to keep our schedules aligned with each other) and adjustment (menu) costs. See David Romer's Advanced Macroeconomics (p. 296 in the 3rd edition). He credits Milton Friedman as the source of the analogy.
Posted by William Polley at March 30, 2006 10:35 PM
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