Environmental and Urban Economics

This NY Times piece has some interesting ideas. Environmental scholars have wondered about the quality of the aggregate carbon dioxide statistics that China generates. Do we really know how many tons of carbon this big nation produces each year? In terms of data quality, is this the tip of the iceberg? Tyler sketches some ugly possible future scenarios concerning China's economic dynamics

After spending two weeks in Beijing in September 2009, I can offer a few observations.

1. China's leading universities are producing 100,000s of talented ambitious young graduates. Now that the young faculty have been trained at Western Universities, this new cohort is getting a serious education. (I cannot judge the quality of the education in the 1980s in China's universities).

This NY Times editorial below surprises me. Could the Smart Obama Team really be this bad at basic game theory? I thought that during the Cold War that RAND was paid big bucks for teaching the government strategy lessons in dealing with the Soviet Union. I guess that the stock of Government knowledge depreciates over time. The Boss of Israel has clearly called President Obama's "bluff" as he anticipated that any threats would not be credible in the sub-game.

I agree with Nat Keohane's main claim here . I read this as a "Field of Dreams" domino effect. If we build it, they (i.e China, India) will follow. The specific details don't really matter. Leadership is leadership. We are trying to shift a perception that the U.S is a free rider and that it is acceptable to continue to free ride on global carbon production. If the U.S commits to being a credible "first mover", then this sharply reduces Political Business cycle issues.

I am happy to hear that China has pledged to reduce its carbon intensity by 40% by 2020 but does this guarantee a smaller global carbon footprint? Recall that carbon intensity = tons of CO2/GNP. China's economy has been growing by 8% per year. Make the big assumption that this average growth rate will continue until 2020 and ignore compounding. So, in ten years their economy will be 80% bigger and their carbon intensity will be 40% lower than it is now.

Okay, I'll cry uncle. The Keynesian Multiplier of this government spending is very large. My Dynamic Stochastic GE Model concludes that for every $ that the Department of Energy gives to Los Angeles we generate $3112 of new output and intellectual capital. If you want documentation for how my model works, please go to this technical webpage for details.

Next week there will be a very interesting energy conference at UC Berkeley. I don't like to travel far from Los Angeles but this is worth the effort. These are very exciting days to study empirical energy questions here in California. When I taught in Boston, I was frustrated by the local electric utility's lack of interest in talking to us nerds.

Bloggers are supposed to provide useful links. Each Thanksgiving, I think about the life of the turkey. This website answered many of my questions about the typical turkey's Biography .

Switching subjects and returning to issues that I actually know something about:

I have a deep interest in "green" products. Coda Automotive is an intriguing new company. Their leaders will visit the UCLA Institute of the Environment in early December. I look forward to meeting them.

Apparently, it is not hard to get into Harvard. Ask these Rats. They clearly were

excited about the opportunity to be research subjects in the new Allston labs and came up from below ground to volunteer to be part of randomized trials. They were "rewarded" for their altruism with sharp counter-measures. Life is not fair.

University Funds Rat-Proof Trash Bins

Harvard denies fault over rodents, but says cans are part of “larger partnership”

By Sofia E.

Here's a new criteria for ranking research universities; who on your faculty has thought about the broad issue of climate change? Permit UCLA to put its cards on the table.

The Young Men (could any women be writing this stuff?) at www.econjobrumors.com are very funny. Dora and I greatly appreciate their cumulative wisdom. I wish that I had the time and the anger to join them because I could certainly top their remarks but I've reached an age where I'm supposed to be a dignified leader. Exhibit A and Exhibit B .