Given time constraints, I wouldn't have guessed that I would be interested at all in reading a book about Thai productivity growth but MIT's Robert Townsend has written an impressive new book.

Google has some fantastic economists working for them.  Did Hal Varian work on the recent Google study focused on the "free lunch" offered by carbon pricing?  Here is  my cross-post on this subject.

China's local governments have borrowed a lot of money from the state government.

Research involving human subjects involves benefits and costs.  All universities have created internal review boards (IRB) to minimize the probability that future nerds torture subjects or make phone calls to restaurants claiming that they have received bad service (for details click here or here).

I will soon start my second trip to Beijing.  This blog won't be updated at that time because the wise Central Government doesn't allow access to "blogspot blogs".    In Beijing, I'll be working with the Lincoln Institute where I will be giving a set of lectures related to my work on "green cities".

We need guinea pigs to try out new ideas and to experiment.  Those who stumble upon a good idea will teach lessons to the rest of us.  A Los Angeles couple has built a a very green home.  Note that they are from Germany; a place with high electricity and water prices.

Small businesses are a leading growth engine for our economy.  With this point in mind, I was excited to receive this announcement from Beth Laski..

Sean Knibb’s SK1 Furniture Debuts at Calypso Home St.

Erin Mansur and I have written a paper focused on estimating how the count of manufacturing jobs in a local area responds to that area's labor regulation, environmental regulation and electricity prices.

In this age of field experiments and randomize trials, "old fashioned" natural experiments are not in style. But, permit me to take you back to the 1990s methodology back when I had hair and I was full of ideas and energy.

I am teaching summer school at UCLA this summer.  There are roughly 65 talented undergrads in my environmental economics class.  I'm a good teacher and I have my own style.  I often look to the NY Times for real world examples to teach.

Bio-markers!  In the near future, different people will be treated differently. If you are 30 years old with the body that is "age 55", your spit will give up this info and your doctor will ask you to take a bunch of tests (like a colonoscopy) that your buddies might not take for another 20 years.

My subscription to Rolling Stone Magazine ended roughly 30 years ago but this piece by Vice President Gore is worth reading. Here is its last paragraph.

"The climate crisis, in reality, is a struggle for the soul of America.

I read here that "climate activists" do not like my Climatopolis book.   Given that I'm a climate activist, I'm surprised.

Summer school begins tomorrow so I will return to supplying my environmental economics lectures.  I walk into the room with a newspaper and say some random things (related to externalities and the environmental consequences of free market growth) that students find interesting and mildly amusing.

This is a scary article about victims in China being exposed (without them knowing it) to extremely high lead levels.  You do not want to live near a battery manufacturer.  Lead levels are elevated in a vicinity around such factories.

As a failed macroeconomist (and thus a current applied micro scholar), I would like to pose some riddles for my "macro" brethren.   To set the scene,  here is a high quality piece by Greg Mankiw sketching a short history of what macroeconomists do all day long.

Non-economists laugh at the "Spock-like" rationality we economists impute to decision makers.  Our emphasis on dynamic programming has not caught on widely.  But, then I read snippets of Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg's Barnard May 2011 Commencement Speech and I feel better.

Buffalo's urban boosters have made the case that their city is thriving..

Tradeoffs lurk.  "Berkeleyish" people such as myself enjoy eating bean sprouts.  But, this article highlights that "healthy sprouts" can be contaminated with salmonella.   Contaminated sprouts have caused the recent deaths due to infection in Europe.

There are proven ways to lower infection risk.

The New York Times sketches the impressive growth taking place in Gurgaon, India.

We know that big city crime has fallen sharply over the last 20 years.   The experts continue to debate why this progress in quality of life has taken place.  John Sinfelt may have caused this progress.  As his obituary sketches, he was a pioneer in developing unleaded gasoline.

Where do the skilled want to live and work?  Those areas have a bright future.  This article provides a quick case study of the possibility that UBS bank may move from the "boring" NYC suburbs back to the Center City because the bankers want to live downtown without the nasty commute.

Here  is Newsweek's recent piece on the challenge of adapting to climate change.  While I read it quickly, I didn't see a single mention of capitalism's role in helping us to cope with this emerging threat.

If you are in Los Angeles this summer and you are looking for some G-rated excitement, then I would suggest signing up for my environmental economics class at UCLA.   So far, 63 people have signed up and that's not bad.

Matthew Slaughter's piece in the WSJ offers the possibility of 2.1 million new jobs for antsy Americans.   He argues that this growth would occur if China protects our intellectual property which is being bought "cheaply" right now in China.

My Research and My Books
My Research and My Books
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