Which Cities Can Take a Punch?
The New York Times has published a very good piece on urban adaptation to natural disasters. Note its implicit optimism that New York City is making investments to make it more resilient against the next shock.
Behavioral Economics and Climate Change
Cass Sunstein suggests that we aren't scared enough of climate change. He should consider distinguishing public action (i.e carbon pricing) versus private action (i.e individuals and companies moving away from flood plains).
United Airlines and No WiFi Access
I was shocked that I didn't have Internet access last night on my 4 hour flight from Chicago to Los Angeles. Now that I have read this article I see that United is lagging far behind other airlines including Southwest.
Urban Economists on the Off Diagonal
At the University of Chicago, photos of the entering class are taken and put up on the wall. Here is a photo taken in early October 1988.
Unintended Consequences Caused by Women who Work in the Market Sector
Katie Couric says that her ratings are down because of this. Rick Flyer and Sherwin Rosen investigated the long term consequences for public school teacher quality as women chose to leave the the public education sector to enter the private sector.
Krugman and Climate Change Adaptation
Paul Krugman has written an excellent review of his first mentor's new book. Dr. Krugman is a consistent thinker. He devotes merely two paragraphs in his long review to climate change adaptation. Below I supply it.
Some Press Coverage from Forbes about my University of Chicago China Lecture
On Thursday October 24th, I gave a lecture at the Harris School at the University of Chicago co-sponsored by the Energy Policy Institute at Chicago and the Confucius Institute. My talk was titled; "Blue Skies in China?" You can download the relevant material here.
The Quality of Southwest Airlines Flights that Last More than One Hour
Yesterday I took my longest trip on Southwest Airlines as I flew 3.5 hours from Phoenix to Chicago. I give the airline an A-.
Financing New York City's Defense Against Climate Change Risk
Hurricane Sandy threw quite a punch at NYC. This article makes a number of reasonable points but then it ends on a funny and revealing note.
A Quick Return to Chicago
I was born in Chicago. I met my wife there and I will be there on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, I will given this talk at the University of Chicago. My remarks will provide some "big think" on two recent academic papers of mine including this one and this one.
Amazon and the Economic Theory of Predation
The New York Times reports that Amazon's business model is to take over every retail market by offering low prices and high quality service and that some time in the future after it has vanquished its competition that it will then act as a monopolist and price gouge and make some profit.
A Global Economics Rank of #257 in REPEC's "Recent Publications" Category
Based on a ranking of all of the world's economists based on one's publications over the last 10 years, I rank #257. Based on this ranking, you can take a look at my peers. Some of these folks are pretty good. Based on this criteria, I'm ranked #2 among all UCLA economists. Sounds right to me.
Publication Lags
Here is a piece that I swear I wrote two years ago on climate change adaptation. It has now appeared in the prestigious European Financial Review.
Research Fields in Modern Economics
I received my Ph.D in 1993. I went back to my university's webpage to learn about their current Ph.D program.
Endogenous Property Rights
If I want your sneakers, I can either pay for them or I can steal them. How I achieve my goals depends on whether I take property rights as "given". If I acknowledge your ownership of the sneakers and I respect private property, then I must compensate you.
My UCLA Field Trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific
On early Saturday morning, while other academic economists are sleeping, consulting and/or thinking, I will be taking 34 UCLA Freshmen to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Why am I doing this? This is actually part of my teaching responsibilities. Do I enjoy doing this? We will see.
Gary Becker's Recent World Bank Talk on Inequality and Upward Mobility
In September 2013, Gary Becker gave a great talk at the World Bank. You can watch it here.
Building a Better New York City
In the Arts Section of today's NY Times, Michael Kimmelman gets to have a lot of fun as he traces his "free lunches" for New York City. These are new policies he would adopt that would improve NYC's quality of life and make it a more equitable city.
The "Make vs. Buy" Decision for Pumpkin Spice Lattes
You don't have to be Williamson, Coase or Demsetz, to ponder whether households should make their own Pumpkin Spice Lattes or buy one from Starbucks for $5. This article says that the raw ingredients cost 40 cents.
Should UCLA's Leaders Blog?
The wise new leader of the University of Wisconsin Madison's Campus is a prominent economist named Becky Blank. Here is her blog and it is a good read. While I could be mistaken, I believe that the University of California has appointed very few economists to be campus leaders.
No Free Lunch?
A counter-example. Note the rational response to zero prices.
A Trivia Question About the University of Chicago's Economics Department
How many current University of Chicago Economics faculty are over the age of 55 and have neither won a Clark Medal nor a Nobel Prize nor been named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association? Treatment or selection?
An Impressive Real Estate Economics Blog from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
I did not know about this real estate blog until now. This blog contains serious content that is presented in a user-friendly way that undergraduates will benefit from.
Ed Glaeser Celebrates Manhattan's Success at Attracting the 1%
Ed provides Bill de Blasio with some free advice for how to lead a great city. The de Blasio Era will offer a great natural experiment to test for cross-elasticities. Manhattan is a superstar city.
$2,770 Per Square Foot for Palo Alto Housing!
Palo Alto has some expensive housing. At $2,770 per square foot, how large a house do you want? Here is one available property for you to consider. It is a very nice 5,800 square foot house. But, you have alternatives.
My Submission to the New York Cartoon Caption Contest
The New Yorker has rejected my cartoon caption several times but I think I have a funny one.
Contest #399, October 14, 2013
Your Caption:
I'm working on my knight moves. Trying' to make some front page drive-in news.
California's Jerry Brown Subsidizes Living in the Desert and thus Inhibits Climate Adaptation
Jerry Brown has ordered the California PUCs to redesign electricity prices to subsidize inland hot California places at the expense of cool coastal places.
Public Transit "Speeds Up" Thanks to Information Technology
Back in 1986, I was a student at the London School of Economics. When I would ride the Tube, I would marvel that the brilliant Brits had figured out how to have displays indicating how many minutes until the next train would appear.
Behavioral Economics and Tesla's Stock Price Dynamics After the Fire
A Tesla car caught on fire and this event "caused" a huge drop in Tesla's stock price.
Casey Mulligan's Thought Provoking WSJ Piece
President Obama's health care reform certainly offers progressive benefits as it extends access to health insurance. An economist might ask what it will cost. In today's WSJ, Casey Mulligan has written a pessimistic piece arguing that its costs will be very high.
A Great Day for UCLA's Institute of the Environment
Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker have made a wonderful investment in UCLA. All of the details are available here.
Proactive Climate Change Adaptation
In my 2010 book Climatopolis, I argued that induced innovation, migration, capitalism and competition will allow urbanites all over the world to adapt to the serious threat of climate change. I predicted in that book that the free rider problem is insurmountable.
