Notre Dame professor John Gaski has a letter to the editor in the Indy Star entitled Economic edge goes to Central time. The crux of the letter is:
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce reports that 39 percent of Indiana’s domestic exports go to the Eastern Time zone, more than to any other single time zone. Advocates of Eastern Time for Indiana imagine this datum supports their position.
But if 39 percent goes east, that means 61 percent is shipped to the other three zones. So if Indiana is assigned to the Eastern Time zone instead of Central, we gain an hour of strategic synchronicity for 39 percent of our export business volume (relative to the other possible choice), but lose the hour with respect to 61 percent. Vice versa, put us in the Central zone and we gain the synchronicity hour for 61 percent, losing it for only 39 percent. (As you may know, imports are about a 50-50 wash.) And there is much to be said for being only two hours removed from the West Coast.
Leave a Reply