A Novel Undergraduate Environmental Economics Class
By clicking here, you can download all of the lecture notes, filmed videos, notes, homeworks and readings for my fall 2013 Undergraduate Environmental Economics class at UCLA. Roughly 116 students will receive a grade. That's a big class and I didn't have a graduate Teaching Assistant to help me.
Feeding the Homeless and the Urban Tragedy of the Commons
The NY Times would make King Solomon blush. On the front page today is a story from Los Angeles' West Hollywood neighborhood. This tolerant community (located six miles east of my UCLA neighborhood) is feeding the homeless.
All Hail Uber!
This blog post is a product endorsement. No more taxi cabs for me. Uber is now my Los Angeles car service company. My wife, son and I have all downloaded their App which provides you with a map of how minutes away is its closest car.
Some Economics of Bitcoins
In Econ 101, we teach that U.S dollars (not backed by gold) will be accepted as payment because the seller expects that somebody else will accept payment with the currency.
An Interesting Field Experiment
Soon, I will go to the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madison to present a new paper of mine. I went to the UW-Madison webpage to see what's going on at that Department and I read through this newsletter.
Drinking and Talking
We know that we shouldn't drink and drive but should economists drink and lecture? On Wednesday November 20th, I ran a field experiment. I was given the opportunity to speak to a large number of Emeritus faculty members of UCLA.
President Obama's JPE Collection?
It looks to me that the President is showing the Chicago economists (Lars, Gene and Grace) his collection of JPE journals. The third Nobel Laureate is hiding out in back.
An Interesting Economics Paper?
The market will price this output.
Why is UCLA Ranked #61?
Here is a novel ranking of U.S "smart colleges". Why is UCLA ranked #61? Note that UCSD is #23, UC Berkeley is #31 and USC is also ranked #31. There is a question of whether the sampled population is representative of all students at each school but this is an interesting approach.
A Physics Lesson
While I am not a good physicist, I have great hopes that my son will be. As a regular reader of the NY Post, I'd like to share one physics lesson for you.
When Do Boycotts Succeed?
The NY Times reports evidence that China is not "small" in media markets. Its credible threats yield outcomes that it prefers. Economists haven't done enough work on this relationship between economic growth and "political muscle".
Urban Marriage Markets
This article tells the story of how a UCLA trained doctor married a punk rocker. Her parents had many questions about this dude.
Hollywood Celebrities who Install Wind Turbines in Upstate New York
For environmental economics and urban economics teachers, here is a funny land allocation problem.
UCLA's Sustainability Grand Challenge
UCLA has just announced an exciting grand challenge
"In a kickoff event at UCLA's Royce Hall, Chancellor Gene Block will describe the ambitious project, "Thriving in a Hotter Los Angeles," whose goal is for the Los Angeles region to use exclusively renewable energy and local water by 2050 while pr
Four Environmental Economics Links
While the NY Times doesn't report any NBA news today, it is filled with other interesting stuff.
1. The local externality imposed by New York City's old garbage trucks. Yes, these trucks pick up the garbage but they emit plenty of particulate matter and cleaning this up will cost millions.
Outsourcing in Cities
Catherine Rampell has written an excellent piece about how we allocate our scarce time. Note that neither the word "city" nor "population density" appear in her article. Robinson Crusoe would not have had the option of outsourcing his cooking or dry cleaning.
Conspicuous Consumption in Los Angeles
I was in a West Los Angeles parking lot next to where my son takes fencing lessons. While I agree that this is not a location chosen at random, take a look at the makes of these three parked cars. From left to right, I see Tesla, Lexus, Tesla.
Fixed Effects
A psychologist reports that those who smiled in their College yearbook photo were much less likely to subsequently divorce than those serious people who didn't smile. The causal effect here is likely to be due to a 3rd variable; "stress and attitude".
The Evolving Geography of China's Industrial Production
In joint research, I have just released a new NBER Working Paper that examines the causes and consequences of shifts in the economic geography of China's industrial production. Led Zeppelin recorded a famous song called; "The Song Remains the Same". This applies to this piece of my research.
Free Riding and River Water Pollution in China
In September 2013, I visited the National University of Singapore and had the opportunity to work with two economists at their Institute of Real Estate Studies. Pei Li, Daxuan Zhao and I have just released this new NBER Working Paper.
The Efficient Allocation of Rural Land in Upstate New York
Back in the mid-1980s, I attended Hamilton College.
Safety Net Convergence? Will France Imitate Texas?
This article is worth reading. For decades, France has ignored Milton Friedman's logic and has heavily taxed its economy to provide for a generous safety net.
Climate Change Adaptation and Big Data
The New Yorker Magazine tells an optimistic story about how "Big Data" will help farmers cope with climate change and climate risk. In a nutshell what the article argues is an analogy; Baseball's Billy Bean (think Moneyball) is to Baseball what Jeffrey Hamlin is to farming.
Redistribution in Cities: The Case of Mayor De Blasio
While Google doesn't have it recorded, roughly 15 years ago, Ed Glaeser, Jordan Rappaport and I wrote a paper titled "Redistribution in Cities". With the election of the new progressive mayor of NYC, this paper merits a second look.
An Unusual Day in My UCLA Environmental Economics Class
I've been a professor for 20 years now so I'm seldom surprised by what goes on in the classroom. Today was funny.
Climate Change and the Food Supply
The NY Times has a lead article saying that the IPCC says that climate change will reduce the food supply during a time of global population and income growth and this will lead to higher prices for food and hence increased starvation risk for the world's very poor.
