Environmental and Urban Economics

We return to UCLA this sunday. This year, I'm hoping to try out for the football team like Robert Redford in the Natural. I've always said that the academic summers are too long. I need a little bit of structure in my life to get work done. Yesterday, I took my first exam in more than a decade. I used to be a good test taker but yesterday I flunked the California written exam for getting a driver's license. My score of 29 out of 36 just missed. After a night of studying and worrying and having my six year old son lecture me about different rules of the road, today I scored a 32 and passed. Next time I give an exam at UCLA, I will have more empathy for my students.

Today, I opened up the New York Times and read this funny editorial.

The rise of behavioral economics has blurred the lines between rational choice economics and psychology. Today the New York Times offers a "quiz" to determine which camp you belong to. Read this interview below and think about Dr. Gigerenzer's work. Are you convinced by his empirical methods he sketches below?

Again like Dan Gilbert (Harvard's Stumbling guy) he pays little attention to heterogeneity.

In the absence of government intervention, insurance prices would be high in areas that the actuaries identify as having high a high risk of being "attacked" by mother nature or other more human threats.

This paper cited below presents an interesting fact based on some 5th grade kids. The heavy ones miss more school. So, to build up human capital do we ban fries and oreos? Or do we search for a 3rd factor (such as parental and child patience and self control) that determines both a child's weight and devotion to school?

The good news here is that statistical analysis offers an easy test of this claim.

Today the New York Times editorial page endorses bigger government. Perhaps C + I + G = Y, but what units is "G" measured in? What is "high quality" government services and how do we design contracts and accountability to achieve this? I agree with the Times that clean, high quality water may be a good investments for cities. This EPA price tag of $277 billion dollars over 20 years caught my eye.

I guess that I'm not a loyal guy. I switch sports teams depending on who is winning. Now I've learned that I switch newspapers depending on who is writing interesting stuff. Dan Gardner is! Below he refers to a paper published in the December 2006 issue of the Journal of Economic History. A copy of the paper is posted here http://web.mit.edu/costa/www/papers.html

Forging A New Identity: The Costs and Benefits of Diversity in Civil War Combat Units for Black Slaves and Freemen.

Suppose you went to the Harvard Economics Department or the Kennedy School and you surveyed senior faculty asking them how much time a week do they talk to reporters, what would the average be? Would the mean be lower if you surveyed Yale's Economics Department? If so, why?

With the rise of popular books and popular blogs, many academics are raising their popular profile and there appears to be infinite demand for our witty quotes in the popular media.

Public relations is a fascinating topic.

The Times is reporting that NYC will receive roughly $350 million federal dollars to address congestion. The article is vague about what is the "treatment" and how it could "cause" a reduction in congestion. But, let's ignore this detail! Given that time is our most scarce asset (except for bloggers and blog readers), what is congestion costing NYC?

“The average New York commuter now spends 49 hours stuck in traffic every year, up from 18 hours in 1982,” she said.

During the fall 2007 quarter, I will co-teach a new course at UCLA titled "Energy and the Modern Economy". My partner will be an astro-physicist named Mike Jura. I must admit that I feel for Mike. How many times do such smart guys get stuck with a guy like me? I've been trying to do my homework here. In my defense, in the past I've published several papers on energy demand and sprawl and hybrid vehicle demand.

As a renter, I'm starting to like what I'm seeing in the over-heated Western Los Angeles housing market! My question for Big Ben Bernanke regards China's foreign reserves. Suppose you were China's Secretary of the Treasury.