Environmental and Urban Economics

I must be getting older. I now am interested in the articles printed in alumni magazines. Below, I report a piece by UC Berkeley's Dean of the College of Environmental Design. His Berkeley Team attempts to "green" China's urban development. He emphasizes that his suggested policies are more costly upfront but offer significant future savings and reduced environmental impacts.

While I greatly admire his plans, I did not see much serious discussion in this article concerning what are the causal forces that determine vehicle use in a growing country such as China. In the United States, rising incomes and employment and population suburbanization have contributed to increased vehicle use. Will similar trends arise in China's major cities? Could Dr.

In Chapter 4 of my new Green Cities book, I discuss at length the environmental benefits of de-industrialization. The New York Times offers a nice case study today. While the article simply polls just a few people, the Times found some people in Steubenville Ohio who would prefer the "good old days" featuring polluted air and steel jobs versus clean air and no steel jobs.

Relative to the boom years, this town's population has declined but the city is greener.

I showed up to work today and actually received two interesting letters. One was from Robert Axelrod and the other was from Ken Arrow. Professor Axelrod is a University Professor at the University of Michigan. I have never met him. I am a recipient of a mass mailing inviting me to China. Here are some excerpts,

"I am honored to invite you to participate in an international professional and cultural program.

I have just returned from a great environmental economics conference in Vail, Colorado. A foot of snow was dumped on me but that couldn't stop me. At this conference, we discussed many environmental issues. One researcher pointed out the puzzle that there has been a sharp membership decline in the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (see http://www.aere.org/).

At Tufts, we started our seminar series yesterday. Gib Metcalf gave a fascinating talk on explaining state/year trends in U.S energy intensity. The ratio = (energy consumption/real GNP) has been declining from 1970 to the present with the OPEC price shocks.

There are too many economists writing papers about speed dating. I would prefer to read papers about what happens to economists when they participate in speed dating markets! I mention this because later this week I will be attending a conference in Vail where there will be 20 enviro econ presentations over 2 days.

Harvard is always in the news. Today, its scholars have calculated life expectancy (measured in years) by state. Clearly, Bill Clinton didn't do enough good deeds for Arkansas and we should all move to Utah. I'm not sure if this is an "apples to apples" comparison. This would be a more interesting set of facts if "similar" people were being compared across states.

The article I report below from the University of Chicago Alumni Magazine highlights why this university has achieved such prominence. The University of Chicago wanted to understand how its heterogeneous students demand library services. The library bundles multiple activities. It is a place one can do research, a place to study, and a place to socialize.

Dr. Abbott is clearly a smart man but somehow he was suckered into doing an indepth statistical analysis of library use.

I now own 100 copies of my new puke green colored book; "Green Cities: Urban Growth and the Environment." If you are interested in environmental and urban issues, you might want to read this piece of work! Here are some details. http://www.brook.edu/press/books/greencities.htm

If you are a teacher and are looking for a free copy, here the details for how to get your hands on one: http://www.brook.edu/press/about.htm

I've learned that Hilary Clinton was right.

Does the typical person in the United States have a private incentive to root for new costly public policies to preempt climate change? Adam Smith taught us to focus on self interest as a motivator. About a year ago, I thought about writing a crazy paper that fear of air travel delays caused by climate change would be sufficient (given our high value of time) to encourage us to vote for green climate policies.