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.

Letters to the editor always interest me.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Demographic trends appear to matter in determining what products we see supplied in markets.

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.

Dora Costa and I have written about survival in tough settings (see http://web.mit.edu/costa/www/pow16.pdf) but this sounds like a real challenge.

This is a subtle article. Maybe Peter Applebome should be our next President? I like that he sees two sides to a debate. I like that he is honest about tradeoffs and the importance of making costly decisions without declaring that a "free lunch" lurks. Andrew Cuomo must be a righteous dude.

Economists talk, blog, lecture and write but we don't always succeed in conveying the case for efficiency. Below, I report 3 letters published in today's Los Angeles Times by intelligent people. The last two might not have gotten an A on my final exam.

Is there a puzzle here? In the absence of current greenhouse gas emissions regulation, a leading Asian electric utility plans to sharply reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Pigeons do not contribute to Green Cities. They should be diapered or exported to the moon. This Columbia University article highlights the challenge that urban diversity poses in determining what is "good public policy".

This morning I woke up in New York City at 330am eastern time to catch a 630am flight to Los Angeles. All went smoothly and I just had a nice lunch with my wife at the UCLA faculty club but I'm a pinch tired.

At the Fletcher School at Tufts, my students argued that the transportation of goods such as roses from one continent to final consumers in the USA helped to exacerbate greenhouse gas externalities. They were arguing that "local produce" and goods may impose fewer negative externalities.

I was born in Chicago on day that my mom claims that the temperature was minus 15. I've lived in 3 cold places (Boston, Chicago and New York City) for 39 of my 41 years on this planet. But, after 11 months in Los Angeles --- I'm worried that I can't take the cold anymore.

Purifying sewer water will increase Orange County's available water supply.

This article has several interesting pieces to it. It is almost like a Simpsons episode as it wanders from subject to subject.

The Coase Theorem will not go away. Today's New York Times has a nice case study of the rising costs of air and noise pollution generated by a local airport in West Los Angeles.

Now that I've become an Uncle for the first time, I feel a responsibility to blog about important topics rather than trivia. So, I'd like to talk about ambient particulate levels at Cigar Bars.

I went to a new dentist today in Westwood. We should all read Alan Blinder's Journal of Political Economy paper on the economics of tooth brushing (Volume 82, issue 4, 1974). Near the dentist's office in the hallway there was a box, the sign on the box said "This box does not contain drugs or money.

Have you ever wanted to know more about suburban New Jersey? The New York Times celebrates a small town there called Hopewell Borough. The commute to New York City looks a little bit too long for my taste. You couldn't walk to Columbia or NYU from there.

Is Free Trade good for your environmental exposure? This is an interesting case study. It claims that U.S electronic waste is heading to China because it is cheaper to dispose of it over there. It also claims that this would be less of an issue if nations ratified the Basel Convention.

As a renter in West L.A, I continue to think about the supply and demand for real estate near UCLA. I understand why demand is high. This is paradise. I have lived in Chicago, Boston, New York City, and London and there is no comparison.

There are some supply side barriers.

Alfred E. Mann is my kind of guy. He graduated from UCLA. He lives in a tiny 23,000 square foot house in Beverly Hills and he is betting a large share of his fortune on a new insulin medication that could help millions of people.

Truckers haven't been able to shirk to the same degree due to GPS technology tracking their movements. Now government employees can shirk less. I'm hoping they don't start following academic economists.

The Monkees, as a rock band, weren't quite in the same league as the Rolling Stones but now in 2007 as a bunch of creatures they are touring in New Delhi.

I have a vague memory of a Bob Lucas paper that had a section stating that pigeons have downward sloping demand curves.

I am starting a new empirical project on energy consumption by various cities. Buildings are major energy consumer. I realize that most bloggers do not post econometrics output in their blog outputs but so be it. The unit of analysis is a commercial building so a Starbucks or a post office.

In recent years, you can directly buy computers from the maker (Dell), buy your own plane ticket without a travel agency ---- now the Eagles will sell you their album at Walmart without any record company getting involved.

A 98 year old named Harold Hay would disagree with Milton Friedman. Professor Friedman didn't believe that there were "$20 bills lying on the ground". Dr. Hay disagrees. He claims that his solar ideas fleshed out 40 years ago work in practice and are better than other solar approaches.

I just received the following letter from Columbia University's Office of the Controller , Unclaimed Property Office.

Check Date 11/25/1996

Matthew Kahn

Littaver Ctr.