Beauty in Wealthy Cities: Nature or Nurture?
I was wondering why everyone looks so good in Los Angeles? Is it selection? Attractive people move here to try to make it big in various entertainment industries? Or is it treatment? This article below emphasizes the second theory.
Berkeley Energy Conference "Summer Camp"
I am in Berkeley at an energy conference at the UC Energy Institute. The 5 day meetings are called a "summer camp" and the weather and group spirit makes it feel this way. The meetings are making me feel mildly youthful and enthusiastic about this subject matter.
What do People Do all Day in the Modern Downtown City?
In the good old days, all jobs were downtown and all people lived downtown close to the jobs because transportation costs were too high to allow people to live further from employment centers and enjoy cheaper land.
LA to Vancouver to Berkeley
Last Wednesday morning I left Los Angeles to fly up to Vancouver. The flight was easy but when I was in the Vancouver airport trying to pass through customs I got stuck in a 2000 person line.
A First Time for Everything: My News Radio Debut
As a young man, I was on Wall Street Journal Asia's Television channel being interviewed on how New York City's ban on smoking would affect the flow of asian tourists to NYC. Today, I made my radio debut on Vancouver's http://www.cknw.com/.
Three Cheers for the Vancouver Sun
I have a new favorite newspaper. My only regret in this article is that I didn't do a good job discussing "Superstar" cities and San Francisco. Even I know that San Francisco's middle class is being hollowed out by gentrification.
Political Business Cycles and Green Investment Delays Due to Uncertainty
Suppose that investments in renewable energy plants such as wind power or solar is costly requiring large sunk upfront investments (think of wind turbines).
Green Hypocrisy? Self Interest and Opposition to Cape Cod Wind Power
This books sounds interesting. I've blogged before about the NIMBYism versus green power proponents going at it in Cape Cod. This book provides a detailed case study contradicting a pet theory of mine.
The Future of Downtown Vancouver
Next wednesday there will be some real excitement in Vancouver. I'm coming to town to speak for at least 10 minutes on the broad issue of gentrification and the balance between residential land use and commercial land use in a "Superstar" city.
Pollution Havens, Asymmetric Information and Product Quality
Plenty of papers have been written about the rise of poor nations as pollution havens
as international trade grows.
De-Industrialization Has Greened Big Cities
Summer is the right time to be an academic. During summer, academics have few excuses for why they can't referee papers or revise their own papers. Last week, I made the mistake of trying to draft something short for a well known monthly business publication.
Academics Who Leave Cambridge to Go West: A Growing Group
Where is the "epi-center" of academic economics these days? With the rise of blogs, webpages and .pdf files, does location matter less for one's productivity than in the past? Cambridge always has excellent graduate students and the next generation has plenty of energy, ambition and excitement for t
Some Comments on Roland Fryer's work on "Incentive Pay" for Students
I greatly admire how Professor Fryer is blending serious academic research with social activism. Many field experiments look "low stakes" to me. His field experiment (to offer urban kids $ bonuses for scoring high on school exams) strikes me as "high stakes" and potentially important.
Terrorism and Cross-Elasticities
Undergraduate micro teachers are always looking for ways to spice up their material. Students wake up a pinch if you talk about the unintended consequences of seatbelts or "morning after" pills. Today's New York Times offers a spatial eye-opener related to "cross-elasticities".
Urban Density and Germs and Hand Washing by Toliet Users
I was just in a UCLA men's bathroom. A dude was sitting in a locked stoll. A toliet flushed and he walked out. Without washing his hands, he kept going and exited the bathroom. I was grossed out.
USA Today: My new favorite newspaper
When I worked at Columbia Univ, my favorite newspaper was the New York Post. It had a large font I could read and it focused on simple ideas and topics that I could understand. In Boston, I liked the Boston Globe because of its sports section and long articles about the NFL New England Patriots.
Los Angeles Offers Most Surfers a "Clean" Ride: Water Pollution Progress Despite Enormous Population Scale
I was in Malibu today. We weren't looking for celebrities. Instead, we went to Malibu Canyon State Park. It's a great place to hike around. On our way there, we almost ran over a surfer with our car. To our surprise, he ran across the highway with his surfboard.
Recycling Gray Water: Investments by Green Households to be Minimalist Resource Consumers
There are some serious greens in Oakland California. Mayor Jerry Brown should be careful because Laura Allen may try to recycle him.
May 31, 2007
The Dirty Water Underground
By GREGORY DICUM
OAKLAND, Calif.
Intellectual Challenges that help the Old to Feel Young
What problems should older academics be working on? Some take up applied problems perhaps because consulting pays well. Others reduce their quantity of writing.
