Environmental and Urban Economics

I am a 1987 graduate of the LSE.  In less than two months, I return to the LSE to see my friends there and to give several lectures. One will be a public lecture  where I discuss the big themes of my China research.  Most of this research is joint with Siqi Zheng of Tsinghua.   One of my China pollution papers, which will soon be published in AEJ, is joint with Pei Li and Daxuan Zhou.

My year at the LSE (1986 to 1987) played a pivotal role in my early training.   From 1984 to 1986, I attended a liberal arts college.  There were no graduate students at my college.  Relatively few of the faculty were active researchers. Instead, these smart faculty taught and held office hours and served on campus administrative committees.

On Thursday night, I gave an after dinner talk for a group of NBER economists.  My talk focused on the impact of climate change on urban economic growth and urban quality of life.  I argued that urbanization and the system of cities will together greatly help us to adapt to the emerging threat of climate change.   Below, I provide my notes for my talk.

In today's Economist, there is a long piece about Minister Lee of Singapore.  He died this week.

The UCLA Daily Bruin sometimes reports polls of its readers' views.    While surveys may attract a non-random sample of respondents, note that 66% of UCLA students support water rationing. Note that "water pricing" isn't even included as an option for adapting to drought conditions.   A charitable chap might suggest that the third option "the state will find a solution" includes water pricing but I'm not that chap.

Have you ever written a book manuscript and submitted it to a leading academic press and received four favorable reviews all recommending publication? But then based on a negative report from a scholar who doesn't have an econ degree, your manuscript is rejected.  A bad day. An embarrassing day.   When this book is finally published, you will see that it is quite good.

UPDATE:  If you don't believe me, watch the podcast of my May 26th 2015 Public Lecture at LSE.

Boston is a cold city. I lived here for 8 years over two different time periods. now I'm just another guy renting a room at the Sonesta Hotel. it is 90 degrees today in Los Angeles and I'm not used to wearing a coat. I'm not used to seeing dirty snow on the ground and I'm not used to cold rain. I had forgotten about gray skies.  There are some good active economists who work in Boston.   Face to face communication still has value.

The NY Times editorial board has mixed feelings about Lee Kuan Yew's legacy.  During his decades of leadership, Singapore's poverty rate plummeted and the nation/state is now strong and prosperous.  For a nation so close to the equator,  scholars such as Jeff Sachs must be surprised by such a nation's economic growth.  Leadership matters.  During my two trips to Singapore (and I have spent 4 weeks there in total), I saw a nation whose leaders embrace economic incentives.

A highly cited paper published in 2000 in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that;

RESULTS

There were 136 reports about 19 diverse treatments, such as calcium-channel–blocker therapy for coronary artery disease, appendectomy, and interventions for subfertility. In most cases, the estimates of the treatment effects from observational studies and randomized, controlled trials were similar.

My UCLA teaching is now completed.  In the Spring 2015 quarter, I will teach a 20 person pass/fail Freshman Fiat Lux focusing the economics of adapting to climate change.   The class will meet 5 times for two hours each on occasional Fridays. I don't view this as "teaching". All of the students will pass the class. There will be no exams, no grading and no papers. Instead, I will talk and they will ask me questions.

Amy Zegart served on the UCLA Public Policy faculty for several years.  Today, she has published a thought provoking piece about drone warfare in the WSJ.  She paints a picture of future "aircraft carriers in the sky" such that the Mother Ship launches thousands of little unmanned ships that fly around an pinpoint their targets and collect detailed real time data.

Note that investment in drones represents substituting labor for capital.