Mike Bloomberg's Harvard Speech on "Group Think in the Ivy League"
He is a smart man. Read his remarks here. A quote:
"In the 2012 presidential race, 96 percent of all campaign contributions from Ivy League faculty and employees went to Barack Obama.
NY Times Stories on Climate Change Adaptation
When I was a kid we used to spend August on Fire Island along the Atlantic Ocean. We were told that the current beach front had been the middle of the island just a century before.
How Will Farmers and Farm Consumers Adapt to Drought?
Brad Plumer has written a good piece about drought's consequences for California farming but he needs to think about general equilibrium effects.
Environmental and Urban Economics Videos
For those with a low value of time and for those who appreciate good economics jokes, here are my videos focused on the economics of climate change and here are my videos focused on other topics related to environmental and urban economics.
A Video of My "Big Data and Sustainability" Talk at the University of Ottawa
Here is the video of my April 2014 talk at the University of Ottawa. I argue that the combination of Big Data and field experiments can sharply improve urban quality of life.
Shiller on Long Run Insurance Contracts and Climate Change Risk
Robert Shiller has written an excellent piece sketching recent work on long run insurance. For a popular audience such as the NY Times readers, he isn't able to delve into the details. So, permit me to discuss just one.
Asset Markets and Heterogeneous Beliefs: Why Don't Climate Change Deniers Purchase All Miami Flood Prone Real Estate?
A turtle carries its shell on its back. When it moves, it brings its "house" with it. Imagine if coastal residents could at low cost move their homes to "higher ground" when sea level rise takes place.
Advocacy and the Social Sciences at the University of California
Alvaro Huerta is a Visiting Scholar at UCLA. Today, the UCLA Bruin published his piece on the challenges that many Hispanics face in our economy. Several of the policy proposals that he advocates (such as sharply raising the minimum wage) reject the core logic of Econ 101.
Could Climate Change Mitigation Be An Important Issue in the 2016 Election?
Tom Steyer is investing his own money to counter the Koch Brothers and to try to elevate climate change mitigation as a national policy issue.
Why Does the NFL Philadelphia Eagles Draft College Graduates?
The WSJ reports that the NFL Eagles mainly draft college graduates. Why? Isn't the NFL a "muscle" rather than a "brains" league? Graduating from college requires certain non-cognitive skills that Jim Heckman has written about in many recent papers.
The Cost of Specialization: Evidence from National League Pitchers' Record Low Batting Average
The NY Times reports that the NY Mets' pitchers get 1 hit per 100 at bats. In the "old days", they would have batted around .150. The Times argues that from a young age that today's pitchers specialize in pitching and never learn to hit.
International Migration as a Climate Change Adaptation Strategy
A person with the ability to migrate to higher ground suffers less from climate change. Nations with larger land areas offer migrants more places they can move to. Some young economist should take the Alesina and Spolaore model of the number of nations and incorporate climate change adaptation.
The Optimal Durability of Location Fixed Capital and the Turtle Economy
Everything has a finite life. Pieces of capital such as; your car, your phone, your computer, your home, yourself, the building where you work, the highway you drive on, the subway that goes downtown all will eventually crumble.
What Happens When an Economist Gives a Commencement Speech?
William G. Bowen spoke his mind during his Haverford College speech. During this time when our universities are showing a tepid commitment to free speech, it is nice to see a thinker challenge his audience. I would be a lot happier doing my job as a teacher if I thought that I could do this.
Frank Wolak's LA Times Editorial
Economics professors have a lot of constructive ideas for improving quality of life. But, we lack political clout (since most people seek free lunches, fear transparency, and don't appreciate the power of unleashing free markets) both in designing public policy and in running universities.
Evaluating China's Investments in Africa
I am in Las Vegas and staying in the hotel where Elvis played many shows and lived in the Penthouse. This hotel hasn't changed much since when Elvis was here in the 1970s. Yesterday, I was at Stanford's GSB. They are a high IQ crowd and I always learn a lot when I'm there.
Urban Amenity Dynamics
Randy Walsh and I are writing a new Handbook of Urban Economics chapter on urban amenity dynamics. Traditional examples of "fixed" amenities includes noting that San Francisco has better weather than Houston.
A Three Day Heat Wave in Los Angeles
We are in the middle of a heat wave in LA where the high temperatures could get close to 100 degrees (source LA Times). How will we adapt to this heat? How much would people be willing to pay to avoid this heat? All over the region, people will stay inside and crank the air conditioning.
Urbanization Will Help Africa to Adapt to Climate Change
Some excellent economists have argued that climate change will raise the risk of more Civil Wars in Africa.
The University of Chicago Economists Run a Field Experiment
In May 2014, what does the reading public want from leading economists? Last week, Atif Mian and Amir Sufi released their University of Chicago Press book "House of Debt: How They (and You) Caused the Great Recession, and How We Can Prevent It from Happening Again" and today Steve Dubner and Steve
How Should a Finance Prof Speak to Well Intentioned Hippies?
My UCLA colleague Ivo Welch has written an OP-ED for the New York Times explaining why university divestment from coal companies will not change the world. At the end of his piece, he offers some alternative strategies to achieve the student's noble goal of reducing global GHG emissions.
Rogoff on Piketty
Harvard's Ken Rogoff has written a great piece that essentially makes a "Lucas Critique" point about Piketty's work.
Raise the Price of Water in California
Read this NY Times piece about coping with drought in California. Starbucks charges $2 for a coffee and many,many people buy it. A gallon of water in Los Angeles costs .5 cents.
Spatial Mismatch Revisited
John Kain would like this new NBER Working Paper that uses a novel data set to document evidence in support of the classic spatial mismatch hypothesis.
Private Sector vs. Government Responses to Global Warming Risk
The NY Times is devoting some serious space in its attempt to nudge President Obama to use his remaining political capital to push for a carbon tax and to ban coal as an energy source.