This is an interesting example of regulations are made when two different parts of the government disagree about how to proceed. In this case, the EPA and Department of Defense appear to have opposite views on the effects of the solvent TCE.
I am in rainy Berkeley attending a OECD Roundtable on Transportation, Urban Form and Economic Growth. There are roughly 50 participants and the group includes economists, urban planners, sociologists, political scientists and others. Such a diverse "Noah's Ark" offers benefits and costs.
This article below provides an interesting case study debating the merits of engaging in a "Big Push" for encouraging the development of disease vaccines.
Some environmentalists have talked about similar initiatives for encouraging increased "green" innovation.
Some environmentalists have talked about similar initiatives for encouraging increased "green" innovation.
Do demand curves slope down? China's government will soon offer us another test of econ 101 by increases its taxes on energy and resource consumption.
Good students always like report card day. This organization (http://www.ceres.org/pub/publication.php?pid=84) has determined which corporations are "naughty" and "nice" with regards to addressing climate change issues.
When I was in graduate school, I was taught that economics is the study of incentives and their intended and unintended consequences. Today, economics is morphing into the empirical field where we challenge the "conventional wisdom".
Suppose that you are Paul Krugman. You are a benevolent planner who wants to maximize the well being of all 300 million people in the United States.
Most cold cities have not performed great over the last 30 years. What is it about New York City, Boston and Chicago relative to other cities such as Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia.
Can public health epidemics such as SARS stop commerce in a major city? This article in the Times argues that globalized companies face the risk of losing access to their workforce in other countries if a disease spreads but that these companies have not planned for this contingency.
I've been blogging for 1/2 a year now. At the start, I had plenty to say but now somehow I have less to say. I did want to mention a promising branch of research in economics focusing on the consequences of media coverage.
The goal of social science is to explain and predict human behavior. The goal of Homeland Security is to predict when and where the next terrorist attack will occur and to stop it.
Economists are quite interested in social interaction (i.e contagion) models.
In late March, I'll fly to Berkeley to participate in an OECD Roundtable on sprawl. Below, I report a draft of the paper. I apologize that I don't show you the tables or figures. I can't figure out how to upload a .pdf file so I simply pasted this in.
The New York Times usually reviews too much fiction for my taste. Today, greens should be interested in this specific book review reported below. Why has Florida's Everglades been declining? The book reviewer seems to be blaming sprawl. I had always thought that it was related to sugar subsidies.
Today's New York Times Magazine devotes ample space to Ed Glaeser's real estate research agenda. The article does a nice job melding Ed's important research ideas with an accurate biographical sketch. Most economists aren't as colorful as Glaeser.
I'm back in cold Boston after several days in warm, productive California. Now I understand why real estate prices are high on that coast.
