Don't Mess with Nursing Mothers
Social scientists are in deep thought about breast-feeding. Leading economists have worked on this topic and now UCLA psychologists are working on this. While I don't plan to work on this topic, I reserve the option of doing so in the future.
A Recipe for Increasing Domestic Manufacturing Jobs
Alan Krueger is a great choice to lead the CEA but is it his job to figure out how to "create jobs" for the U.S economy? I don't think so. The NY Times wants us to have more manufacturing jobs and it has vehicle batteries on the the brain.
Revealed Preference Evidence Concerning What Economists Actually Do All Day Long
My mom still hopes that I will become an urban planner while my father wants me to enroll at his medical school.. She wants me to be useful but my human capital is no longer putty as it has turned into clay.
Energy Consumption and Real Estate Prices
Do "green buildings" sell and rent for a price premium? This LA Times article discusses some recent research on this topic including my solar paper (joint with Costa, Dastrup and Graff-Zivin).
Manhattan Gets Ready for Hurricane Irene
This has been a tough week for the Northeast; one quake and now some heavy rain. I'm sitting in sunny, cool Berkeley reading posts such as this one and looking at flood maps such as the one below.
I would be shocked if this hurricane causes deaths in the Northeast.
San Francisco Real Estate
Here is a cross-post that I wrote for the UCLA Ziman Center's new real estate blog. If you skim through the blog entries, you will see a diverse set of faculty and students writing for this blog. We are trying to highlight that UCLA is a hub of real estate research activity.
Pick Your Poison: More Debt or Inflation?
Here is a clash of two titans named Krugman and Rogoff. Dr. Krugman says that it is cheap for the U.S to borrow right now and that there must be some NPV>0 projects that the federal government can invest in --- so we should increase our debt to stimulate the economy now.
Learning from Experience and Adapting
The Northeast has survived its 5.8 scale quake and will learn from the experience. The first earthquake I experienced in Berkeley made me think that a subway train was about to arrive. But, then I realized I wasn't in NYC and that it must have been a quake.
Can Prius Drivers Be Homophobic?
The following quote was presented in today's San Francisco Chronicle.
Public Eavesdropping
"She can't be homophobic.
Amenities Bundled into New Residential Housing in Manhattan
Milstein Properties is rolling out new housing in Southern Manhattan's Battery Park City. This real estate isn't cheap. As this article explains, it will cost $1,300 a square foot while its local competition costs a mere $1,000 per square foot.
Can a Former UCLA Dean Write a Great Book on Leadership?
I lead by counter-example. My students and my son observe what I do and then do the opposite. This strategy works but it isn't for everybody.
Some Links for Today
1. I have written papers on household carbon footprints in both the United States and in China so I continue to be interested in other scholars' carbon footprint calculations. This study examines the carbon footprint of indoor Cannabis production.
Government to the Rescue?
I gave a lecture on climate change adaptation today to a group of 40 Ph.D. econ students from all of the UC campuses. As you know, I place individuals and individual firms as our first line of defense in protecting us from the challenge of climate change.
Intellectual Property and the Internet
To my deep surprise, I have found a website (that I didn't create) that has posted all of the references that I listed at the end of my 2006 Brookings Press Book; Green Cities: Urban Growth and the Environment. The website does not name me as "the source" for this reference list.
New UCLA Survey Research on Worrying About the Future
The lead investigator of this new survey sold me my current house. How does he propose that we finance the expenditures that he is asking "us" to incur?
Aug.
What Should Firms Maximize?
How does the NY Times choose who should write its OP-ED pieces? Paul Krugman was a wise choice but does Joe Nocera merit such a monopoly? I know that he has a business news niche as he dishes dirt on what deals are going down but his knowledge of economics is shaky at best.
Using Field Experiments To Diagnose the Causes of Our Economic Malaise
Have you noticed that economists do not agree about what are the causes and cures for our current malaise? Right now we seek to reduce the budget deficit and to reduce unemployment.
The Obituary for a Leading Statistician Who Gave Us the Kaplan-Meier Hazard Model
When applied researchers fire up their Stata 12.0 version, we should keep in mind that all of the "ado" files embody past major contributions to statistics and econometrics. Paul Meier's 1958 JASA paper has generated 35,000 cites.
Can Human Ingenuity Substitute for Natural Capital?
New UCLA research on water supply suggests that the answer is "yes". So, here is the "dance step". Climate scientists alert us to the natural capital challenges posed by climate change.
A New 10 Minute Climatopolis Interview
While at PERC in Bozeman Montana, I was interviewed about free markets and climate change adaptation. Here is the video.
A Reading List for the Economics of Climate Change Adaptation
There appears to be growing consensus that climate change adaptation is an important topic to study. Since economists have opinions (and expertise) about everything, I have created a short reading list to encourage more young people to enter this lively field.
Information and Adaptation to Disasters
This article tells a depressing tale. After the nuclear power plant disaster in Japan in Spring 2011, people who lived close to the plant sought to migrate to a safer location.
The Consequences of a Declining Stock Market for Academic Economists' Standard of Living
Has the recent decline in the stock market been on your mind? We own a few shares of this and that and I'm feeling a pinch poorer but I'm thinking about my University and your university's medium term hiring plans. Senior economists have gained from the "free agency" flush times of the 2000s.
"Police Incidents" in Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman is a charming city with roughly 40,000 people. It is a "green", low crime city. Here are some facts about recent "incidents" from the Bozeman police reports. This town has a safer feel to it than my LA.
Read through this list. I didn't make this stuff up and it is pretty funny.