Environmental and Urban Economics

Michael Greenstone and I have a friendly disagreement discussed here about whether economic growth and recessions are "friend" or "foe" of "Green Cities".

HERE is the transcript of the Radio Segment

Can there be clean air and economic growth?

Economic growth is often coupled with an increase in pollution. But those two factors may not be mutually inclusive, at least not the way they once were.

Report: Pollution way up in Chinese cities

The downside to China's rapid growth of the past few years: a rise in air pollution. A Chinese government report shows over 100 Chinese cities had the worst pollution levels in five years.

TEXT OF STORY

Kai Ryssdal: It's still a point of macroeconomic debate as to when or, in some circles, whether China is going to pass the U.S.

Matt Kotchen and I have written a new NBER Working Paper that we hope will interest you.

Environmental Concern and the Business Cycle: The Chilling Effect of Recession

Matthew E. Kahn, Matthew J. Kotchen

NBER Working Paper No. 16241

Issued in July 2010

This paper uses three different sources of data to investigate the association between the business cycle—measured with unemployment rates—and environmental concern.

An abbreviated version of our discussion is posted here . You will see that I'm not an eloquent speaker. In the future, I will practice my english speaking.

This would appear to be a very exciting time to be a macro economist. Watch this Lars Hansen video and you will see what I mean.

This talk by Princeton's Markus B. is also worth watching .

The New York Times claims that China's air pollution is growing worse due to increased motorization, construction, coal burning and general economic growth. But, their article didn't report any data trends. One way to measure air pollution is to use the API = air pollution index.

Using Google, I went to the Chinese Environmental Ministry and found this daily data for Chinese major cities measuring ambient pollution.

Who knew? Now, I'm hoping that William Shatner might take one of my classes and then maybe we could record a Beatles song together. Perhaps, Norwegian Wood?

Yesterday was my last day of teaching summer school. I'm not sure if this experiment was a success or not. But, it mildly distracted me from research that I can't get myself to do. I'm now sitting on six revise and resubmits that I should probably think about doing but I'm not sure where to start with any of them.

Wind turbines generate electricity when the wind is blowing but we often demand electricity for air conditioning on hot days when the wind isn't blowing! If we could store electricity using batteries, then we could effectively separate production activity (i.e generating power) from when we consume the power. Similar to peanut butter and jelly, investments in wind turbines and battery technology are complements.

Today, David Leonhardt reports on some exciting new research done by some photogenic leading economists (check out their photo at the Royal Sonesta staircase here ). Imagine if Matthew Kahn had been randomly assigned to a good Kindergarten class, the Chetty et. al. research documents that by age 27 that my earnings would be significantly higher. Apparently, the legacy of kindergarten lives on. Early life investments increase later life achievement. Jim Heckman would agree.

Starting with Hausman's 1979 paper , empirical economists have been interested in the fact that most consumers prefer to purchase durable products whose costs are "backloaded". In English, we tend to prefer the air conditioner whose upfront price is cheap but that uses a lot of electricity in each subsequent year while we run away from products that are expensive today but are very inexpensive to operate (because they require little electricity) on an annual basis.

I don't like to leave West Los Angeles but for this event at Stanford on 9/7/2010 -- I am willing to participate. The last speaker of the day always faces the challenge of keeping everyone awake as they are either thinking about going home or dreaming of having a beer or 6 at the Happy Hour that takes place after the last talk. Unlike in track & field where the final runner is the star, at conferences it seems to be the opposite. Unlike Tom Cruise, I can handle the truth.