T.M.I? Jeff Sachs' Quest to End Poverty
My new book is currently ranked #13 on Amazon's best sellers in the "exclusive" Environmental Economics Category. One book that ranks ahead of mine is Nina Munk's The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty.
My Fall 2013 Environmental Economics Class at UCLA
As I try to distribute my distinctive "free markets" environmental economics textbook, I'm now giving away the lecture notes and other class material. All of this stuff is posted here.
Durable Capital and Progress: The Case of Mumbai's Collapsing Buildings
A horrible accident has taken place in Mumbai India as a building has collapsed and many people have died.
Why Should Environmental Scientists Talk to Economists?
On Monday, October 7th 2013 I will give a lunch time talk at the UCLA IOE titled "Why Should Environmental Scientists Talk to Economists?" I had originally planned to give a less sexy talk about buses.
Public Leaders
Have you ever wondered who chooses to become a university dean or to run for public office? Once these folks are in office, how do we set up a set of rules to incentivize these guys to do their job rather than to pursue their own narrow goals? Tim Besley's book Principled Agents? is a great place
Robert S. Pindyck's JEL Piece on "Macro" Models of Climate Change Economics
The September 2013 issue of the Journal of Economic Literature has a great Glaeser book review of Moretti's New Economic Geography of Jobs and also features a China pollution paper by myself and Siqi Zheng but the best paper is written by Pindyck.
The New York Times Doesn't Read My Work
In today's New York Times, Keith Bradsher makes some very reasonable points about China's bullet trains. In March 2013, Siqi Zheng and I made exactly the same points in our published PNAS article. Our work isn't mentioned.
Which Economists Free Ride? Evidence from AEA Voting
Abstract: Economic theory predicts that people should not vote because they are unlikely to be the pivotal voter and voting takes time and effort.
Lifetime Graduate Pay as an Indicator of University Quality
UCLA ranks 77th in the nation based on this criteria while UC Berkeley ranks #20 based on mid-career salary data posted here. Our other rival USC is ranked #54 and Stanford is ranked #8. Now, there are at least three explanations for these facts.
America's Sinking Middle Class? Evidence from the Market for the Time Machine
I have broken my 3rd toe on my right foot and this is causing me pain and making it hard for me to walk. Despite this short term setback, I would like to talk about progress. The NY Times' Eduardo Porter serves up some doom and gloom in a piece he posts today.
California's Blue Sky
I have returned to California after being in Asia for almost 4 weeks. While Singapore and Hong Kong are both hot and humid, I could certainly live in either of those cities. Both cities are safe and clean and offer good consumer amenities.
Hong Kong
This is my 4th trip to China. Hong Kong feels like a combination of San Francisco and Manhattan. It has San Francisco's hilly topography and wide open water and Manhattan's density and street life. I really like it. Below I provide a couple of photos that I took today.
The Capitalization of Green Labels: Evidence from California's Residential Housing Market
Regional Science and Urban Economics has published the Kahn and Kok paper estimating hedonic residential real estate models of the price premium for "green" real estate. Here is our paper's abstract.
Proof that Singapore's Straits Times is Better than the NY Times
I have always wondered what substances are baked into a Sausage McMuffin. There has been some debate that the "meat" is lizard rather than being chicken. This photo highlights the key empirical question.
Notice the "lizard tail" hanging out to the lower left of the photo.
My NUS Lectures on Green Real Estate
I have uploaded my lectures to YouTube. Yes, the audio isn't great but if you turn up the volume you will hear some wisdom and some jokes.
Hong Kong
I fly from Singapore to Hong Kong on Sunday morning. I will spend my time at HKUST. Two of my UCLA colleagues (Rui Wang and Cameron Campbell) are visiting professors there and I'm eager to hear about their new life. I will miss NUS.
An Open Letter to Folks who Teach Undergrad Environmental Economics
For teachers looking to inject some "new blood" into their tried and true lectures, consider grabbing some of my free short videos covering the big issues in environmental and urban economics. If your students aren't interested in strange ideas and good jokes, then don't bother.
Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Invests to Become a Green City
The Singapore Straits Times is more interesting than the New York Times. Today my Singapore newspaper reports a new investment effort by Malaysia's major city (KL) to become a "green city"as it seeks to clean up the Klang River.
Climatopolis 2013
Here is a reasonable new review of my Climatopolis book. Unlike 98% of the inane reviews of my book, this review joins Matt Kotchen's in the winner's circle.
Public Transit in Leading Asian Cities
I have now used public transit in Beijing, Shanghai and Singapore. Tonight I commuted by myself from the city center back to the NUS campus as I managed to take the purple line to the orange line to the bus and return to my apartment without a map or a cell phone.
Flood Mitigation: The Case of Singapore
There were very heavy rains in Singapore for 2 days last week. Flooding occurred close to NUS. How is the government responding? There is an engineering plan discussed here.
Here is a photo of the soggy day.
How can the engineers prevent this? Here is the key graph.
Life at the Singapore Mall
How do urbanites cope with hot and humid weather? In the case of Singapore, such people go to the mall. Today, I walked the crowded streets of Orchard Road. With 22 malls to choose from, the capitalist consumer will find something to buy.
Green Urbanization in Asia Revisited
In 2012, I had the opportunity to work with the ADB on a project called Green Urbanization in Asia. Next Wednesday, I'll have the opportunity to give a big talk on this subject at NUS.
Increasing Returns to Scale in the Teaching of Environmental Economics
NUS Professor Alberto Salvo is doing some exciting research on fuel switching and ambient pollution in Brazil. He is also teaching environmental economics. He sent me a kind note saying that my teaching videos have been useful for him in teaching some basic material.
Intellectual Growth at NUS
I am visiting NUS in Singapore to learn new things and to meet and listen to other scholars. In this blog post, I will sketch yesterday. At 10am, I spoke to Professor Craig Brown about his research on national leaders and economic growth.
Singapore Embraces Climate Change Adaptation
Here is an editorial from today's Singapore's Straits Times. The piece ends on a funny note;
The "scientific" notion of countering the effects of climate change through treaty-mandated reductions in carbon emissions is on the other hand fraught with problems.
Singapore at Night
What happens when economists go out at night in Singapore? Tonight I ran a small sample field experiment as John Ham and I took a river cruise around Singapore, then went out to a crab restaurant and then went on a long walk to watch the Marina Bay Sands laser and water show.