Environmental and Urban Economics

There are many treatments in this world. I bet that reading this blog has a small negative treatment effect on your IQ while brushing your teeth has a positive effect on reducing cavities.

Many economists are attempting to measure such treatments because we care about what is "good public policy" and we care about causality. If deworming children in a LDC CAUSES an increase in school attendance, then this suggests that there are benefits from such a policy that may exceed the costs of the policy.

Treatment effects researchers face at least 2 challenges. First, they must establish that the treatment they are studying such as "attending Harvard" is not correlated with key variables that a researcher may not observe such as "intrinsic aptitude".

Did you know that every 8th vehicle in Berkeley is a Toyota Prius? Rather than attend the NBER Summer Institute Environmental meetings or the Real Estate meetings, I’m counting cars and getting some exercise walking the Berkeley Hills. The abundance of hybrids in Berkeley supports my core claims in new paper Do Greens Drive Hummers or Hybrids? Environmental Ideology as a Determinant of Consumer Choice. I will post that paper soon.

All University of Chicago graduates know the answer to that question! With the NBER summer institute in high gear, plenty of important economists are dragging themselves to humid Boston this month. Tomorrow, I will go attend the NBER industrial organization meetings in an attempt to sit still and learn something.

Boston certainly has a great set of economists when you add up all of gang at Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, Tufts and Brandeis, Clark and some other joints in town. Perhaps St.

I'm proud that Brookings will publish my book, Green Cities: Urban Growth and the Environment, next month.

In Arthur Miller's play "All My Sons", a World War II military contractor makes shoddy planes in order to earn a fast buck. When these products prove to be defective and his shriking is revealed, he commits suicide. Does this "story" apply more broadly to the quality of capitalist products?

The recent Boston Big Dig disaster would say "yes".

Two leading Economic Historians wrote an important "long run trends" paper that is relevant for thinking about the recent Boston Big Dig construction problems. Engerman and Sokoloff examined cost over-runs in major public works projects over a long time period. To my surprise, % cost over-runs have increased over time.

I had thought that "muckraker" press would now do a better job monitoring the public sector to provide public goods more efficiently.

If Matt is a jealous guy, then as Bill Gates grows even richer Matt's envy may cause him to suffer a welfare loss. But if the middle class and poor are not envious, are they made worse off as income inequality increases?

It depends. If the super-rich use some of their $ to finance nice musuems and art galleries and Buffett-Gates their money to solve public health challenges then society could be improved along some dimensions.

There are two intriguing articles in today's NYT that focus on New York City. Paul Krugman examines the puzzle that corporate headquarters are moving back to New York City. Information technology has allowed corporations to split into at least two spatial pieces.

I've joined a group of scholars who are starting to write a longer policy paper on China's cities. In particular, I'm thinking about what are the key lessons to take away from the U.S and Europe's urban experience with respect to achieving the "win-win" of economic growth and keeping cities clean and green?

When I look at China's cities today, I see a couple of things;

1.