Environmental and Urban Economics

I wanted to see what the Internet had to say about my father. Apparently, he is a pretty good heart doctor at NYU but you can judge for yourself about

Martin L. Kahn . I don't know who wrote this book but it does describe the guy who I know and who I owe big time! But please don't google my mom.

What would Goldfinger think of this one? Jaws would know how to handle Burton Sultan here. Where is the Coase Theorem when you need it? You will not see me at the 2008 ASSA meetings in New Orleans. I will make my comeback in 2009 in San Fran. Have a happy new years!

New York Times

December 29, 2007

Actor and Neighbor Told to Stop Suing Each Other

By CHRISTINE HAUSER

As James Bond, the actor Sean Connery fought off villains and spies. But now, a Manhattan judge is calling the shots.

Letters to the editor always interest me. I don't know how the editor chooses which letters to accept for publication (what is the editor's goal here? to maximize debate? to find people who reaffirm his priors? To make the newspaper look "fair and balanced") but the competitive process leads to some pretty interesting stuff being published.

I must admit that I hadn't thought through all of the issues raised in the first letter.

A simple empirical project --- Does use of EBAY increase after Christmas? I'm sure it does as people try to unload "bad" christmas gifts but I've never seen the volume dynamics data.

If the slow pace of the holiday season has you seeking intellectual excitement, then perhaps this site will help -- Berkeley Daily Planet

Somehow, the New York Post and this newspaper disagree over what is the "news of the day".

I bought two books today. Both are autobiographies but their subjects may be negatively correlated;

1. Ron Woods --- the guitarist of the Rolling Stones

2. Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

In Los Angeles, one is always looking to make more money so one can afford a nice house. I'm thinking of auctioning my recent JEEM paper titled "Do Greens Drive Hummers or Hybrids?" to Hollywood. Bruce Willis could play an environmentalist cop who is forced by bad guys to drive a Hummer in his green community and this results in his green neighbors mocking and ostracizing him. This is a slight twist on a Die-Hard movie plot's start but I doubt that fans would notice.

The City of Berkeley is home of 7% of Alameda's total population but 40% of the county's homeless live in Berkeley. Does such tolerance have unintended consequences? The stores in downtown Berkeley think so. This article says that merchants blame "rowdy behavior" for the ghost town effect that the educated, liberal community of Berkeley is voting with their feet and are not shopping in downtown Berkeley.

Even professors need time off. It is true that our job is not as stressful as other jobs such as being a surgeon or a fireman. There is a lot of stuff going on at UCLA (98% of which is good!) and so I'm tired at the end of this quarter. To refresh and get ready for the winter quarter, we are heading to Berkeley, CA. Berkeley has a positive treatment effect on my family.

Demographic trends appear to matter in determining what products we see supplied in markets. The Los Angeles Times sports section yesterday had an interesting article about the "median voter" at Los Angeles high schools and how these public schools' demographics have shifted from 1980 and 2006 and the implications of this trend for which schools are sports powerhouses versus who are duds. Look for more soccer and less football at many of these schools.

Product differentiation is a key aspect of modern capitalism. How does a Prius differ from a conventional Honda Civic? How does Coke differ from Pepsi? To my surprise, somehow Harvard thinks that it has a marketing problem. This article from the Harvard Crimson highlights a key decision that will shape the future course of this great institution (I'm kidding).