An Economic Analysis of California's GHG Reductions Goals
Gov. Jerry Brown has announced some even "greener" medium term GHG reduction goals. No economists are cited in the NY Times article so permit me to fill the void. Recall the facts. California is unilaterally deciding to sharply reduce its GHG emissions.
My new Vox Piece on "Death and the Media"
Richard Baldwin's Vox is an excellent platform for spreading economic research ideas. My eleven pieces on Vox have been downloaded roughly 160,000 times. My mother can't have downloaded all of those copies? Dora Costa and I have just published a new Vox piece.
California's Water Pricing Experiment
The NY Times argues that California's economy will crumple because of drought. Its reporters sketch a tail of the rich fighting the poor over an essential resource (water) resulting in class warfare.
California's Golf Courses Adapt to Drought
The WSJ reports some optimism about aggregate water demand by California golf courses. Recall that golf courses are well watered but California is in the midst of serious drought. Is golf "doomed" in California? Of course not.
God and Drought
What motivates people to conserve water? Most economists would recite the "the Law of Demand". 1/2 cent a gallon water provides weak incentives to conserve --- so Californians face Jerry Brown's water restrictions and crazy prices.
Radical Labor Economists?
Each morning I read the NY Times backwards as I start by reading the Sports Section. In the print edition on most days, the Sports Section is in the back of the Business Section. My eye immediately spotted Orly Ashenfelter's name in this piece about labor versus capital income.
Actors Who Understand the Perverse General Equilibrium Effect of Raising the Minimum Wage
In many blog posts I expressed disgust at the failure of Econ 101 teachers to convey some of our most important ideas. Since people sleep through intro micro, many go on to not anticipate the unintended consequences of bad policies such as raising the minimum wage.
Ex-Post vs. Ex-Ante: Thoughts on Climate Shock by Wagner and Weitzman
In 1972, Issac Ehrlich and Gary Becker wrote an important JPE paper on Self Protection and Insurance. An ungated version is available here. To provide some intuition, consider a random variable such as your house catching on fire.
Media Economics: Newspaper Trends in China Bashing
Today the NY Times has a front page piece on the mistreatment of specific dogs in China. The Times reports that you don't want to be Tibetan Mastiff.
4 Hours of Led Zeppelin a Day: Productive Time Use
When I was a teenager, I would listen to Cream and Led Zeppelin nonstop. I was not a productive teen. Now that I'm no longer a teenager, I've returned to listening to 1970s rock.
Do You Learn "Wisdom" and "Ethics" in Humanities Classes?
In an OP-ED today, Nicholas Kristof offers a feel good convexity hypothesis that humanities people need to study more economics and STEM and that science nerds need to read their Shakespeare.
Calmly Assessing Quality of Life Progress in China
I just finished reading Prof. Ezra Vogel's biography of Deng Xiaoping. This book has sold over 800,000 copies in China. This is a fascinating book. Prof Vogel views Deng to be a major figure whose policies sharply improved China's overall quality of life.
Are Two Heads Better than One? Hillary and Bill and the "One Chair" in the Oval Office
Secretary Clinton would be a fine President of the United States. While I would prefer for President Obama to serve a third term, I realize that this is unlikely event.
A Beckerian Theory of Watching Pro-Baseball: Longer Games ==> The 1% No Longer Watch
It is a well known fact that baseball games now take much longer to complete than in the past. An average of 3 hours and 8 minutes is a major investment of time. A fan who wants to watch such a game has an opportunity cost for that time.
Filling Swimming Pools During a Time of Drought
I live in West Los Angeles in a neighborhood where 75% of the homes have private swimming pools (we don't one). Here is a home for sale and it has a pool. In the midst of California drought, I asked myself a deep question.
A Productive Trip to Las Vegas
You might think that a trip to Las Vegas represents an opportunity to gamble, drink, smell 2nd hand smoke, see large drunk people and admire people's strange tattoos but I want to sketch an alternative vision.
Water Pricing in Beijing: Will Communists Embrace the Price Mechanism Before Jerry Brown Does?
As California continues to ignore the obvious solution of raising water prices to adapt to lingering drought, let's turn to China.
The Future of Economic History?
The Economist Magazine makes the "macro case" that economic history is a highly relevant field.
Twins?
The March 2015 REPEC rankings are posted and here is one funny "border pairs" duo based on productivity over the last 10 years. Neither his famous book nor my books are counted by REPEC so we could have both ranked higher.
29 of the economists ranked ahead of me are at Harvard.
Past Media Coverage of Urban Infectious Disease Death Dynamics: Causes and Consequences
Infectious disease was a major threat to urban quality of life in the late 19th century. Research from Germany, France, and from the United States has documented this claim. In a new NBER paper, Dora Costa and I study how the local media reported about infectious disease outbreaks.
Non-Linear Commodity Pricing: The Case of Water
When you walk into a Starbucks, a medium sized coffee is priced at roughly $2. This price doesn't change as a function of age, education, race or income or any other demographic attribute.
China's Comparative Advantage in Drug Innovation
Imagine a large centralized nation with a desire to create new intellectual property, rising research universities, and a willingness to try out risky new products with minimal "human subjects" concerns (academics imagine if there was no IRB approval needed for research).
