Some Newsworthy Environmental Links
How will California meet the ambitious goals defined by AB32? Here is a long answer; California's ARB's Scoping Plan for Climate Change Mitigation .
Economists and the Default Option: A Field Experiment
Starting with this important paper http://www.nber.org/papers/w7682, economists have been fascinated by whether the "default option" plays a key role in consumer choice.
Glaeser/Kahn Paper on the Greenness of Cities
Tomorrow, I'll have a quote in a New York Times Article from June 25th 2008 . The article is about the impact of high gas prices on housing in the distant suburbs of major cities such as Denver.
A Distinctive Substitution Effect: High Rents Cause Los Angeles Residents to Live in Their Cars
Substitution Effects and Homelessness
In other news, some Duke Univ. Researchers have decided to teach us about hyperbolas.
Apparently, Gallons of gas consumed = miles*(gallons per mile)
June 24, 2008
Observatory
M.P.G.
The "Freakonomics" of Sewage Analysis: Which city uses the most cocaine?
This is funny. We detectives are always looking for clues. Sewage may smell but it offers important evidence for what its producers have been up to. In a city of 8 million people, one is likely to find traces of everything in the waste.
Progress not Regress
The next generation of Kahns are cute and happy. This is progress relative to our recent past. I congratulate my brother. I'm trying to be a good uncle.
This young lady can be united with her first cousin.
My only regret in this life is that I'm not at the UCEI Energy Camp right now.
Dora Costa and Robert Fogel at the Washington DC National Archives this Tuesday
Everybody knows that our nation's Capitol is a delightful place to be during the summer time. My wife loves humidity so I hope you attend her talk about our new Princeton Press book. As a bonus, you'll also hear from Robert Fogel.
New UCLA Center for Corporate Environmental Performance
Prof. Magali Delmas and I are getting ready to launch a new center at UCLA's Institute of the Environment. Pretty soon when you go to www.ioe.ucla.edu, you'll be able to read about what our new Center for Corporate Environmental Performance is up to.
Grief and the Geography of the Brain: New Evidence from UCLA
The neuroscientists get to have a lot of fun with fMRI machines. This article below based on UCLA research sketches a simple experimental design for figuring out what parts of a person's brain "light up" when exposed to different grief stimuli.
An Update on House Price Dynamics in Beverly Hills (Zip Code 90210)
We keep hearing about the housing price meltdown. www.zillow.com has some facts about the ritzy 90210 zip code on the west side of Los Angeles (1 mile east of UCLA). You can double difference the data presented below.
A Correct Analogy? Hoover is to Stanford as MFI will be to the University of Chicago?
I am a graduate of the University of Chicago and so is my wife. We were thrilled to learn that the University will be starting up the Milton Friedman Institute (MFI).
Housing Foreclosure and Local Community Quality of Life Degradation
Suppose that you are a home owner in some suburb and for random reasons your 10 closest neighbors default on their mortgage payments.
Will Rising Obesity Lower Crime? Evidence from Choice Based Samples
Upon entering prison, the average prisoner has a lower Body Mass Index than the average person in the population. When I told my 6 year old son this, he wondered if we could reduce crime by getting fatter. He is smart like his mom.
My New Favorite Weekly: The Economist
My wife subscribes to The Economist. I subscribe to People and Sports Illustrated. I am a sophisticated guy. There is an article this week in the Economist that I will read twice because it talks about my work. The Economist's Article about the geography of green products .
Celebrities Want to Meet You (for a price)
On the Westside of Los Angeles, you can fairly often spot celebrities trying to live their lives. But, now I see that there are active "middlemen" helping buyers meet these celebrities. The Market for Ordering a Celebrity to Be Nice to You .
Paul Ehrlich Wants You to Watch Soap Operas!
Peter Gordon is a wise man. I appreciate his point out this new working paper.
New Working Paper linking TV Watching To Reduced Fertility in Brazil . I plan to watch game #4 of the NBA finals tonight. I predict that this will have a causal effect on my beer drinking and eating nachos.
Random Stuff
For a while, I've dried up and had nothing to blog about.
Do 42 Year Old Academics Still Function?
I often ask myself, am I functioning? Am I doing anything that is interesting or important? 80% of the time my answer is "no" and 20% of the time, my answer is "maybe".
As I write this silly blog entry, I'm trying to write and revise several new papers.
Crime and Punishment: The Case of Pooper Scooper Laws
I wonder if Gary Becker had this specific example in mind when he wrote his 1968 JPE paper on Crime and Punishment? Google Scholar says that it has been cited 2941 times. Not bad, Gary! As I remember it, one of Gary's assumptions is that it is costly for the state to detect malfeasance.
Would You Buy a $6 Million Dollar Home Next to Britney Spears?
You have to feel sorry for Ed McMahon. He had to listen to all of Johnny Carson's bad jokes for all of those years and now he is having trouble meeting his hefty mortgage payments in a fancy community just north of UCLA. Compounding his troubles is the fact that he has Britney Spears as a neighbor.
Are Doctors for Sale? Can a Drug Company Influence a Doc with a Free Lunch and Free Notepads?
Suppose that you are a new Economics PHD and at your first job you are asked to teach economics 101. You must pick a textbook for this course.
Should California's ARB Trust Computable General Equilibrium Models for Judging AB 32's Likely Economic Effects?
Magic is in the air. The California Air Resources Board (ARB) faces a hard economic and political problem. It is mandated to implement climate change mitigation regulation.
