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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 .

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.

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.

The New York Times has a front page article today bemoaning that NYC has an old sewer system that overloads on rainy days.

For academic economists, there are certain seasons. In early October, we wonder if we will win the Nobel Prize this year.

In 1988, I thought that the Brock-Mirman one sector Growth Model was nasty stuff but now look at Exhibit A and Exhibit B. Progress not regress.

I will let you decide if this elegant model resembles the modern economy.

Parents understand backwards induction. We believe that if our child can attend an elite university that this will build his/her human capital, social networks and resume.

If you had to bet, will China or the USA move first and make a credible commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions? Are there any benefits to being the first mover? Today, the New York Times explains why South Korea has been willing to unilaterally show some leadership on carbon mitigation.

I know how to conduct a cost/benefit analysis. I gain nothing from the Santa Monica Airport and this UCLA research documents the ambient air pollution costs. I can personally vouch that this airport's planes are noisy.

This blog post on incentives for improving home energy efficiency caught my eye.

"HOME STAR would reimburse homeowners for a range of residential energy upgrades including air sealing, insulation, new light bulbs and household appliances.

The New York Times is in deep thought about improving U.S buildings' energy efficiency. Here is Exhibit A and Here is exhibit B.

All around the country, other academics feel sorry for their UC peers as we gain some first hand experience with furloughs. Here are the details .

David Levine and his buddy Boldrin may have left UCLA a couple of years ago but I hope they are proud of its recent intellectual property .

University Senate meetings are usually not that interesting unless the faculty is in the mood to yell at the President. But, here are some quotes from a Columbia meeting examining the issue of a smoking ban on the main campus.

Are you a productive citizen? Are you adding more to our economy than this pretty gang ? The "Bling Ring" was smart enough to use the Internet to identify which celebrities live in which LA homes and then to use the Internet to know which celebrities would be out of town on which days.

The LA Times has a sad article today about industrial lead emissions in specific regions in China . The article says that this is direct evidence of the pollution haven hypothesis.

My mother has always liked Mike Cragg so she will be happy to see that Cragg and I are cited in this Lexington Column in The Economist . People have been interested in our work examining the political economy of Carbon voting such as the vote on the June 2009 American Clean Energy and Security Act.

Terence Tao, a UCLA star math prof, is using his blog as an open source platform to allow countless math nerds to work together on the same paper at the same time.

As I try to finish the final draft of my new book, I found these letters, from angry New Yorkers who were frustrated by heavy rains knocking out the NYC subways in 2007, to be quite useful. The NY Post captures the voice of "real" New Yorkers.

I haven't won any teaching awards and I don't expect to win any soon. I do know a guy who wins these things and he is proud of it and I'm proud of him. But, he could publish more!

Master Clinician: Martin L. Kahn, MD, the Joel E. and Joan L.

Evan Smith, an old friend from Hamilton '87, is featured in a photo in the NY Times Business page today . He looks tough in the picture. What has he done? Started a hedge fund? Gone to a tea party? No and No. He has created a new way to deliver the news separate from print sales and circulation.

There are some selfless people in the Big City. Here is a very

nice story about good luck in a big city. A cynic would say that the cardiologist anticipated that she would get a nice write up in People Magazine but I don't believe this.

Are doctors good for you? When are they good for you? As they learn how to do their craft, could their treatment improve and become more cost-effective? Here is David Leonhardt's piece on health care and doctor's value added

For applied micro scholars, we can map this into the treatment effects lit

Ken Caldeira's opening remarks from his 11/5/09 testimony are reported here. Below, I provide some quotes from his remarks but first allow me to editorialize.

Cement Factories are part of the "old economy".

Tournaments feature a skewed payoff distribution. Tiger Woods wins much more cash than the runner up. This creates strong incentives to devote effort. Academic Economics can be viewed as such a tournament.