Environmental and Urban Economics

Sandwiched between "gays in the military" and "gold standard and fiat money", I find the entry for "global warming" in Jeffrey Miron's new book Libertarianism from A to Z . (Full disclosure --- Basic Books published this book and they will publish my book this fall).

I don't own a tv so I don't know what goes on --- on this new show called The Big Bang and I don't care. But, I am happy to see pro physicists receiving some public attention without getting a hair style like Einstein or making pronouncements about world peace. My colleague Dr.

With the UC furloughs, I have been thinking about retiring but as the year continued, I find myself mildly interested in economics again and have now written a new paper titled; "Urban Policy Effects on Carbon Mitigation".

Here is the paper's first section.

Economists are still learning about capitalist firms. The recent recession has convinced me that there are many incentive problems that I had not fully appreciated how they can add up to having "macro consequences". Microeconomists continue to look at specific cases.

I just read this sad story and watched the video. If you watch, you will see a number of people walk by this victim. He is lying on the sidewalk. He must have been moaning in pain but nobody stops to help him. If you refuse to read the NY Post, then here is the same story in the NY Times.

Read it here .

Energy Conservation “Nudges” and Environmentalist Ideology: Evidence from a Randomized Residential Electricity Field Experiment

Dora L. Costa and Matthew E. Kahn

Abstract

“Nudges” are being widely promoted to encourage energy conservation.

One of my favorite reporters attended my class on wednesday. The Hawthorne Effect was out in force and here is what I said .

One size does not fit all. Costa and Kahn (2010) are fans of the "nudge" in certain nuanced cases but those who nudge to achieve social goals (such as increased energy conservation) must keep in mind that the population is diverse.

Here is an interesting debate about the merits of ramping up residential solar power generation in California. So far, Dora and I have resisted joining the "million solar roof" army. We received a piece of mail that showed our roof (it is white) with a nice solar panel in one corner of it.

Relative to its other graduate schools, female faculty are under-represented at Harvard Business School. Women hold 29% of the untenured faculty slots at HBS. Is this due to supply or demand? The Harvard Crimson investigates but fails to answer the question.

As usual, I lost out to some decent teachers . The winners receive a cash prize. It was almost enough to induce me to devote some effort but not quite enough.

All robbers face the challenge of how to turn stolen goods into cash. While I have never owned a pawn shop, there is an interesting issue about one to one mappings and stolen property. In the case of Roy J. Glauber's Nobel Prize, I assume that his name is on his medal.

Attractive people are over-represented in Hollywood (there is the occasional Paul Giamatti or Woody Allen but they exude inner beauty). Now, young academics in political science are debating how "hot" and thin they need to be to compete in the tough new professor job market.

Iceland seems pretty determined to make its mark in international relations. I may teach a course on Iceland and international relations next year at USC. Recently, it had a major financial crisis and now it has unleashed an angry volcano barfing smoke all over Europe.

Leading economists such as Steve Durlauf have been in deep thought about empirical models of social interactions. Pro Sports (due to trades and free agency) provides some variation in social networks to test for whether the same player acts differently as his peer group changes.

Real estate prices are suffering in Baja, Mexico. This article from the LA Times tells a story of half finished ocean side condo buildings sitting next to each other and it looks like a ghost town.

In today's NY Times, there is a nice piece by Lynn Saville . She talks about her photography work and the Internet version shows several of her photos. I like her picture taken from behind of the "Pepsi Cola" neon light. You can see Manhattan in the background.

UCLA has increased its tuition by 30% but there is no evidence (see below) that the quality of the admitted undergraduate pool has declined or that applications have declined. This "natural experiment" has generated some interesting results.

McDonalds has decided not to have 5% of its eggs it buys be from chickens with lots of elbow room (do chickens have elbows?). As a younger man, I loved their Egg McMuffin . But, now that I'm an older man I have new questions.

The U.S population is moving from the North East and Mid West to the South and West. If we want our aggregate carbon footprint to be smaller, then we need to shrink greenhouse gas production in regions (such as the south) where growth will take place.

I flunked out of pre-med a long time ago. My parents still hope that I will drop out of economics and go to medical school but I know that I make mistakes and when I do make my inevitable errors --- I don't want others to suffer.

April 11th 2010

Dean Vernon Wormer

Princeton University,

Dear Dean Wormer,

Paul Krugman merits a tenured position at Princeton University for his recent work on environmental economics. In this letter, I will review his contributions.

This post will be boring so skip it. I already knew that Duke University plays good basketball and now I learn that some of their Department Chairs know what they are doing. The Chair of Duke's Political Science Dept. makes a lot of sense in issuing his 10 commandments.

Like other old guys, I start my day by skimming the print version of the NY Times. I'm looking for funny stuff and today's newspaper delivered.

Example #1 comes from Duke University where the Provost cancelled afternoon classes to have a big party for the b-ball team.

In his autobiography, Robert Rubin's spends a lot of time saying that the key to his getting very rich was his understanding of how to estimate probability distributions.

"The Obama administration, caught in an awkward bind between its own ambitions on climate change and Africa’s pressing energy needs, is facing the first test of its new guidelines discouraging coal-fired power projects in developing nations." quoted here .

Beverly Hills is a nerd friendly, intellectual town. On April 28th, I've been invited there for at least 1 hour. Do you remember The Who's song Substitute? Well, I know my place in the galaxy so I'm happy to serve as a substitute at the 2010 Milken Institute 2010 Global Conference.

A major research field in industrial organization is detecting collusion. Whether its OPEC working to limit competition or Ohio milk markets economists have used our tools to figure out whether suppliers are working together to price gouge the consumer.

This Christian Science Monitor article profiles an evangelical Christian couple who have embraced the importance of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. This article interests me because climate change mitigation today is a "left/right" issue.

1. The key to long run economic growth is attracting and retaining the skilled. Detroit is poor because it is unable to do so. California's climate, lifestyle and universities (both private and public) provide a bedrock to build upon.

Here is an interview with Roger.

"What are the chances of a double-dip recession?

The chances are 50-50. If inflation starts to pick up in our major trading partners such as China, there is a danger that it will be passed onto U.S. consumers. If inflation picks up in the U.S.

Krugman's piece today on banking reform offers several interesting ideas. I want to talk about this quote; "Here’s how I see it.

Suppose that your factory produces greenhouse gases (GHG) as a byproduct of production. To keep this simple, suppose that you emit one ton of GHG per year. If carbon regulation now requires that you must own a "pollution permit" to cover your emissions, you face a choice.