Are economists contributing to the well being of society? In the midst of our ongoing macro challenges, a huge food fight had broken out among macro bloggers but let's not forget micro. Today, the NY Times provides a good example of why economic models are useful.
In the 1960s, John Kain studied the "spatial mismatch" hypothesis that posits that African-American unemployment rates were high mainly because this group disproportionately lived in center cities (due to racial discrimination in housing markets) while jobs were suburbanizing.
When your car's fuel tank is near empty, you stop by a gas station and refuel. This mutually beneficial trade requires no government intervention. In the case of electric vehicles, a "Catch-22" emerges.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon will start collecting sales tax on California orders starting in September 2012. The California sales tax rate is 7.25%.
Dear Matthew Kahn,
The Office of the University Registrar at the University of Chicago has been holding on to your diploma since you
graduated in Summer 1993. We would very much like to send you this unclaimed diploma.
The Office of the University Registrar at the University of Chicago has been holding on to your diploma since you
graduated in Summer 1993. We would very much like to send you this unclaimed diploma.
On Monday after my 11am class, I will be happy to speak to UCLA students about my views on undergraduate transfer students. Here, I would like to preview my main points. I will also be happy to answer any student questions.
I am a nice guy. The proof? Yesterday, I handed out over 130 copies of Climatopolis away for free today to my UCLA Freshmen. Some of the students appreciated my contribution to their education but most of them didn't seem to care.
It was 85 degrees and sunny in LA on Sunday and I took my son swimming at the UCLA pool. Despite this good life, there are dark clouds surrounding LA's quality of life. Kobe is getting older and the Clippers are now a .500 team since Chauncey was injured.
The NY Times has a long piece about IBM's new business as it supplies "Command Centers" for mayors of cities around the world.
As a professor at a leading public university, I have a strong stake in helping UCLA identify new sources of revenue. While we can chant "China, China, China", I believe in a diversified revenue stream.
A new NBER Working Paper documents that when crop yields decline due to weather shocks that young people move away from rural areas.
Public finance is an important branch of economics but it sometimes strikes me as a pinch dry. For those PF profs seeking to spice up their lectures consider California Assemblyman Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara.
For those seeking a distinctive economics research question, consider the following topic. China's rising demand for new toilets.
