Environmental and Urban Economics

Next monday radio listeners in Philadelphia will have a treat. I'll be on the 1020am NPR radio show along with Duke's Gary Gereffi and we will be talking about "green jobs". I anticipate that I will be asked to play "bad cop". Gary has staked out the role of "good cop" based on his November 2008 Green Jobs Study by Duke's Gary Gereffi et. al.

In his report Gary, discusses promising green manufacturing industries;

Chapter 1: LED Lighting

Chapter 2: High-Performance Windows

Chapter 3: Auxiliary Power Units

Chapter 4: Concentrating Solar Power

Chapter 5: Super Soil Systems

Chapter 6: Heat Pump Water Heaters

Chapter 7: Recycling Industrial Waste Energy

For each of these industries, I have a few questions;

1.

When is a political leader a "Chicken Little" versus when is he a prudent educator helping the distracted populace have the right priorities and perceive the correct subjective probabilities of future climate change outcomes?

It appears that Energy Secretary Chu is facing this issue. This has allowed me to be quoted at length in today's New York Times click here.

I like my quotes today more than my front section quote in yesterday's Times on economic models of AB32.

Each morning I read the New York Times front section backwards. I start at the editorial page (to learn from Dowd and Krugman) and then move towards the front page. I was reading page A14 today when I saw my name and a quote of mine on the topic of California and climate change. I was thrilled but a little surprised.

Working with Siqi Zheng and Hongyu Liu of Tsinghua Univ. in Beijing, I have managed to write a new NBER Working Paper on China's Major cities. Starting in the late 1970s with the compensating differentials research of Sherwin Rosen and Jennifer Roback, many urban economists have used U.S data to estimate the implicit prices for non-market goods (i.e air pollution, climate).

Steven Chu is a Nobel Laureate and our new Energy Secretary. He has been quoted as saying that climate change could make water so scarce in California that agricultural production may grind to a halt there by 2100. Today in John Tierney's NYT Article fumbles the ball. He asks a good question. Why is this really smart guy (Chu) making statements that sound extreme? Tierney spends his whole article quoting Roger Pielke. I would have suggested a more diversified academic portfolio.

Ever since I published my Green Cities book in 2006, I have thought about writing a sequel on green cities and climate change. In the new edition of MIT's Technology Review, there is a long excellent article on one case study; A "Green City" in the desert .

This weekend we were in Laguna Beach in Orange County. I thought that Santa Monica has a nice beach but Laguna wins. We didn't like the restaurants and we didn't like our hotel. Don't stay at the Hotel Laguna. It appears to have been built in 1875. I don't need antique plumbing. I am a princess.

Switching gears. If you want to see some 3rd party praise for the new Costa/Kahn book then click here or here. We will be doing a 3pm radio interview today on Los Angeles radio.

What would Larry Summers have to say to Tony Mills? Tony posted this entry at the end of Ed Glaeser's blog post today on the Obama Housing Proposal.

"I’m just kicking myself for not taking on a mortgage I couldn’t afford when I was offered the chance back in 2005.

Some good game theorists should explain how we co-ordinate beliefs when we receive common signals about the economy. Wouldn't we all be better off if we could be convinced that the economy's outlook is improving? Would this be self-fulfilling? Instead, we all read the same bad news from the New York Times. This gloom convinces us that Orphan Annie isn't right that the "Sun will come out tomorrow".

Google's letter to the California PUC. Larry and Sergey please get in touch with me. I have a few ideas on how to harness your energy technology. My ideas will promote the public good and will only cause a little bit of evil. I'm hoping that these wealthy men have always aspired to a higher calling such as publishing in the JPE.

On a different subject, I read an important paper by a young, under-appreciated economist today. I suggest that you read it.