Environmental and Urban Economics

At $2 a gallon, should I stop writing papers about the Prius? I don't think so. You wouldn't want to read my papers about the financial crisis. I am a fan of creative destruction and would ask the Obama Administration to sit back and let the chips land where they land. But, they wouldn't listen to me. I vote for decentralizing power rather than having Washington D.C seize it. So, permit me to keep writing about the Prius.

Dear colleagues,

I recently published a new article in The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy (Contributions), and thought you might enjoy reading it. You are invited to download the full text at no charge from the journal's website; feel free to forward this along to any other colleagues who may be interested.

Kahn, Matthew E. and Vaughn, Ryan K.

Every sunday morning, we go to the Beverly Hills farmer's market. This is the only driving we do each week (4 miles round trip). At this market, I wonder if famous Hollywood types are walking past me and I don't recognize them. As I waited on line at the Bakery stand, the woman in front of me told the merchant how great he is on TV. She then explained to her son that he is a stuntman on the TV show "PrisonBreak". I took a closer look at this guy and he does look like the lead actor on that show.

Spring Break means different things to faculty and students. Since I can't remember what it was like to be a student, I will focus on what faculty do on Spring break. We took our charming son to Joshua Tree National Park . I was counting lizards and spotting a variety of cactus types.

Since we don't own a television, we use our night time at Motels to catch up on what everyone else is watching. My 7 year old and I bonded over Caddyshack. My wife didn't want him watching Goodfellas.

Are economists deep thinkers? In case recent events have made you doubt it, here is example A.

In my humble opinion, the dudes of economics write too many sports papers. Would women journal editors accept these? But, this week's Sports Illustrated reports evidence that will thrill behavioral economists and annoy Milton Friedman and his other bald intellectual grandchildren.

This Sports Illustrated article focuses on pro athletes who were paid millions of dollars but are now bankrupt. The article hints that these guys do not abide by the permanent income hypothesis.

The average home near UCLA sells for $1.3 million dollars. This blog claims that the average home in Detroit is priced at $13,000. So, one can trade 1 Westwood house for 100 Detroit homes.

I know that gas is cheap now and the economy is in recession. Despite these facts, it is still interesting to know where are the "green" geographical clusters of areas where people are buying hybrids.

In this piece (written for a popular audience), I "name names" providing "green consumer city" rankings for cities within Los Angeles County and Orange County.

Here is our interview from last night when Dora and I were interviewed on Australian National Radio. I thought that this was a high quality interview. We did a good job explaining why our book is interesting and what it is actually about.

You won't hear from me for at least two days because I will be up at UC Berkeley hanging out with old friends and talking about energy.