Oil Prices: Why Are Economists Such Optimists?
The Oil Drum has recently presented a fascinating one-sided debate in which many folks mocked economists for not understanding key issues related to Peak Oil .
Expected Future Oil Prices and Activist Government Policy
Everyone knows that expectations play a key role in economic life. If I expect to live to be 100 years old, I save more than if I expect to live to age 45.
Deaths from Natural Disasters in Rich and Poor Nations
Between 1980 and 2002, India experienced fourteen major earthquakes that killed a total of 32,117 people while the United States experienced eighteen major earthquakes that killed only 143 people.
Will Beijing Be a Green City by 2008?
Does economic development exacerbate or mitigate urban environmental problems? The environmental Kuznets curve literature continues to debate this question. In my book manuscript titled Green Cities, I explore what we now know about this topic.
Oil: The Optimist vs. Pessimist Debate
Oil Drum and other blogs are drawing wide attention debating whether we are near an end of the oil age. The Oil Drum pointed me to a 8/13/2005 letter by Matt Simmons in the Washington Post that argued that Daniel Yergin is too optimistic about the future of oil. I have a few questions for Mr.
An Economic Analysis of Economics Blogs: Part II
Bloggers are not paid for the quantity or quality of their entries. Usually, suppliers produce zero when offered a price of zero. Why is the supply curve for blogs different than the supply curve for hotdogs?
One explanation is complementarities.
Do You Need a PHD to Write a Good Economics Blog?
For the last month, I’ve been pretty carefully reading many economics blogs. I’ve wondered what determines whether a site is popular and I’ve tried to learn about what blog authors consider to be a “good posting”.
Good Neighbors are Good for You
For decades urban economists have tried to unravel the “chicken and egg” issue of why people who live in high poverty areas are less likely to succeed.
Free Riding and Climate Change
I've been surprised by the unilateral actions some states are taking to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Could Paul Ehrlich Win His Bet?
These are strange days. The New York Times’ editorial writers now side with Julian Simon (see John Tierney’s 8/23/2005 op-ed titled “The $10,000 Question”).
Oil, Activist Government and a Moral Hazard Problem
Economists like to teach their students about the moral hazard problem. Micro economists point out that a home owner is more likely to smoke in bed if she has house insurance that will build her a new house if her home burns down.
The Impending Oil Crisis?
Today gasoline prices are near $3 per gallon. Saudi Arabia has 22% of the world’s known reserves.
The Benefits of Big City Deindustrialization
Between 1969 and 2000, the number of manufacturing jobs in New York county, which includes New York City, declined from 451,330 to 146,291. Big city manufacturing job loss is not unique to the United States.
GIVING 'HYBRIDS' TRACTION: "VEBLEN" STATUS FOR BUYING GREEN CARS
I've published only one editorial piece in my life. It was published in the Boston Globe February 25, 2001, Sunday ideas section. After 9/11/2001, I wrote an editorial titled "Will Wall Street Leave Wall Street?" but I was unable to publish that one so my batting average is .500.
The New York Times Takes a Gutsy Stand Against Excess Cow Manure --- Externalities and Scale Effects
Today There is an Editorial in the New York Times titled "How to Poison a River". The interesting environmental economics embodied in this editorial relates to scale effects. A 30 dairy cow farm is cute.
Residential Racial Segregation: A Surprising Trend
As the black middle class grows, many black households choose to live in the suburbs in more integrated communities.
Testing the Pollution Havens Hypothesis
As nations trade more, do poorer nations specialize in exporting dirty goods? This would allow richer nations to specialize in cleaner service industries and might explain why we see richer nations having lower levels of air pollution than poorer nations.
Keeping Up With the Joneses: Relativity Theory Revisited
Would you prefer to earn $100,000 a year and live in a community where everyone else earns $75,000 a year or to earn $150,000 a year and live in a community where everyone else earns $200,000 a year? More concisely, is your own thermometer of your own well being a function of your absolute level of
Cross-Border Pollution in Asia: Can Coase Tame a Brown Cloud?
The New York Times on 8/16/2005 discusses the export of smoke from Indonesia to Malaysia.
Do Greens Buy Hummers? Free Riders versus “Good” Environmental Citizens
Economic theory predicts that common property is trampled upon and seized. Public parks, the Atmosphere, Oceans, public libraries all are polluted in part due to the fact that nobody has an explicit monetary incentive to preserve them.
AIDS in Minority Communities: The Role of Incarceration
Two Berkeley economists have written an intriguing paper documenting that an unintended consequence of increased black male incarceration rates is higher AIDS rates for African-American men and women.
What is the Key to Urban Growth? Is it Gays?
If a city wants to grow, what should it do? Should it build a new baseball stadium, or a new arts center, or build new rail transit? Should it cut taxes? Should it fight urban crime? Should it hope that Global Warming will raise its average winter temperature from 25 to 50 degrees?
1.
Productivity Growth and Urban Garbage Dump Space
When Fresh Kills garbage dump in Staten Island was closed in 2001, a big question was "what would happen to New York City's garbage?".
Can companies be shamed into environmental compliance?
I sometimes take a look at www.env-econ.net --- there seem to be a lot of different voices speaking there but it has been endorsed by AERE! The short note on the power of shame interests me.
Should Environmentalists Hate Sprawl? The Sprawl Brawl Part Two
What are the environmental consequences of suburban growth? The rhetoric about “sprawl” can get awfully heated. If people want to live in the suburbs, what is the negative externality this imposes on everybody else? Here are some candidates:
A.
EPA Regulation One Million Years From Now
The New York Times seems to care about urban and environmental issues. In the 8/10/2005 issue there are two articles on the subject on page A10. One article takes us to Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.
The Brawl Over Sprawl
What are the environmental consequences of suburban growth? Environmentalists advocate living in public transit friendly cities featuring higher population densities.
The Economist Magazine Debates the Merits of Trees
In the July 30th 2005 edition of the Economist, there is an article "Down With Trees".
The article summarizes some recent ecological research on trees.
1. In arid areas, trees consume far more water than they trap. This can
exacerbate drought.
2.
Krugman and the Housing Bubble
In an editorial in today’s New York Times titled “That Hissing Sound”, Paul Krugman predicts that home prices are on the verge of a decline.
“In the nation as a whole, housing prices rose about 50% between 2000 and 2005.
Regulation Magazine's Green Content
The Summer 2005 issue of Regulation (see www.regulationmagazine.com) has two important articles investigating urban/environmental topics.
1. Gary Libecap provides an analysis of how Los Angeles acquired its water rights from farmers over the years 1905 and 1935.
Rail Transit Expansions: Does Anybody Ride Light Rail?
Nathaniel Baum-Snow of Brown's Economics and I have written a paper for the
Brookings Institution's Brookings-Wharton Urban Affairs Conference.
New Economics Blog
This blog will mainly discuss applied micro economic issues focusing on environmental
and urban topics. For a taste of my recent work see my webpage
fletcher.tufts.edu/faculty/kahn and find the "Green Cities" link at the bottom
of the page.