The NY Times has a nice piece that quotes Glaeser and Moretti about the recent divergence in average human capital levels across U.S cities.
Glaeser has argued that they are complements while this NY Times Piece suggests they are substitutes.
Dear Diary:
METROPOLITAN DIARY
More Reader Tales From the City
While sitting on a bench in Central Park on a recent Sunday afternoon, I started to experiment with my new iPhone.
Dear Diary:
METROPOLITAN DIARY
More Reader Tales From the City
While sitting on a bench in Central Park on a recent Sunday afternoon, I started to experiment with my new iPhone.
Too many monkeys in New Delhi offers a great example of the Tragedy of the Commons. The NY Times reports: Aren't the monkeys cute?
Given the abundance of monkeys, some residents of New Delhi are "fighting fire with fire".
Given the abundance of monkeys, some residents of New Delhi are "fighting fire with fire".
This new piece of research confirms a long standing conjecture of mine. Guys should drive rather than bike. It appears that the serious bike riders are using some cream that has unintended consequences. Here is the press release and I hope you know that my headline is meant to be funny.
My mother still wants me to quit being an economist and get a graduate degree in urban planning.
A new report from the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization offers some specific historical trends over the last 50 years for states such as Illinois and Ohio.
Over the last two months, I gave away roughly 200 copies of my Climatopolis book to my UCLA students. One of my students was kind enough to post it as a "Facebook Like".
The Wall Street Journal reports on a funny statistical exercise involving the search for life on a billion other planets. Whether a planet has "life on it" is a random variable.
Raj Chetty, John Friedman and Jonah Rockoff merit the widespread interest in their work on the payoff of a good 3rd grade teacher. I attribute my failures in life to the bad 3rd grade teachers I had at Scarsdale's Greenacres back in the early 1970s.
Maybe Adam Smith and Alfred Marshall didn't figure out all of micro theory. Consider the case of solar panel imports from China. The NY Times reports that the U.S is imposing a large tariff punishment on these imports.
My mom will be proud that I managed to publish a book review in Stanford's Social Innovation Review. If you bother to read it, you will see some good jokes and some University of Chicago price theory at work. I review John Elkington's "Zeronaughts".
Information is a public good so there is some justification for government supplying it but the recent budget deficit is being used to cut back on data collection. Here is Exhibit #1. You will see that I signed this letter requesting that funds for EIA data collection continue.
The NY Times is worried about the future of Hawaii's beaches. Its article is based on a new academic report available here. At the end of the article, the reporter finally starts talking about the economics of adapting to this anticipated challenge of disappearing beaches.
Professor Enrico Moretti of UC Berkeley has written a very important book that will be published in one week. Google Books offers you an exciting preview of the New Geography of Jobs here.
UC Berkeley's John Quigley passed away this weekend. This news deeply saddens me. He was a great scholar, a great leader, and a good friend of mine. At the age of 70, he continued to write new papers and brimmed with ideas and enthusiasm about applied economics.
California has a $16 billion dollar deficit. In a state with 39 million people, Jerry Brown could introduce the following status quo plan; there will be a head tax of $410 per person for every person who is in California. Don't pay this each year and you must leave. That's $1.12 per day.
California's High Speed Rail will likely cost $100 billion dollars to build and operate. Who should pay for this? Given that the bulk of the benefits of this project will accrue to the people of California, it's not crazy to ask the people of California to pay for it.
On Monday, Jerry Brown will announce new budget cuts that will hurt UCLA. Anticipating this, I have been brainstorming about new ways to raise UCLA's return on its tiny endowment. Shorting Facebook offers one winning strategy.
It isn't shocking that non-German European voters are eager to end Austerity and issue some Euro bonds to finance a new round of "New Deal" stimulus. The New York Times keeps printing photos of passionate young European voters crying and celebrating "regime change".
I sometimes mail out "snail mail". Anticipating this, I own a large number of 44 cent stamps. It crossed my mind that the first class rate is no longer $.44 and Google informed that it is now 45 cents. What is an economist to do?
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Peter Gordon nudged me to take Charles Murray's 20 question quiz to reveal my type. I answered "yes" to two of the 20 questions. Please email me which ones you think I checked "yes". I'm not sure that I achieved any greater self awareness but I did enjoy taking the quiz.
We know that Solyndra failed but it would be wrong to extrapolate and conclude that public funds shouldn't be used for financing "green infrastructure". Today, the NY Times has published a green puzzle.
I celebrate the celebration of randomized field experiments and I'm happy that a MIT nerd has written a whole business book about them.
The LA Times reports a very funny story. In the late 1980s, American Airlines sold lifetime first class unlimited tickets for $350,000 each and often sold a "companion pass" for an extra $150,000.
I've read in the news that the blind Chinese activist is eager for China to get rid of its one child policy. Will environmentalists oppose his agenda? After all, Paul Ehrlich's ideas remain influential.
My friends at the Fed of Boston have released an important general interest paper on the causes of the foreclosure crisis. In this post, I would like to highlight what I like about the paper written by
Christopher L. Foote, Kristopher S. Gerardi, and Paul S. Willen.
Christopher L. Foote, Kristopher S. Gerardi, and Paul S. Willen.
As Japan shuts down nuclear power plants, what energy source will be used to produce its electricity? This webpage claims that 14% of Japan's power is currently generated by nuclear plants.
If you are looking for some excitement in your life, I will be teaching Environmental Economics at UCLA this summer starting in early August. Look up my teaching ratings.
