Does Terror impose equal risks on all people in the United States? It seems clear that urbanites who live and work in dense, coastal areas are at greater risk to bear the costs of the next surprise attack.
In 2001, the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded for research on asymmetric information. I didn't win this prize but I do see the relevance of this research for the current debate concerning the UAE purchasing port access in many of our major cities.
Too much of modern environmental economics focuses on localized externalities such as air and water pollution. I wonder if this interesting New York Times editorial reported below highlights what 21st century environmental economists will focus on? In a Globalized economy where people come and go.
There is an interesting economics literature vaguely titled as "lulling". If New York City's Central Park is now viewed as safe, then muggings there could actually increase as more people go out for Midnight jogs during good weather.
I wonder if I'm the only blogger who sometimes runs low on ideas worth posting? To fill this void, here I post the introduction of a new working paper of mine.
An interesting economics debate has asked whether a nation's endowment of natural resources is a "curse" or a "blessing" for economic development? Jeff Sachs has argued that in South America nations endowed with a lot of oil and other natural resources experience slower economic growth.
We teach comparative advantage in all of our courses but do we believe that it applies in our own lives? If ability were truly one dimensional, then the best economists would be the best chess players, the best cooks and the best University Presidents.
Harvard is a great University. I taught there from 1996 to 1998 and I was married in its Faculty Club. That said, the world spends too much time thinking about this place. I asked my father why the New York Times devotes so much ink on this one joint.
Randy Crane of UCLA has started up a new urban planning blog (see http://planningresearch.blogspot.com/ ). It is quite thought provoking.
Today Columbia University's student newspaper has a piece that hints at the endowment effect.
Today Columbia University's student newspaper has a piece that hints at the endowment effect.
It seems to me that the economics profession is dividing. This isn't the old "Keynesian/neo-classical macro divide".
The death rate from cancer has been declining over time.
The New York Times reports a "behavioral" story about excess intake of sleeping medication.
How should New Oreleans be rebuilt? An old debate in urban economics focuses on "person based" programs versus "place based" programs. Not surprisingly, place based politicians are lobbying for some expensive irreversible investments in place based infrastructure.
