The Cost of Companies Complying with Environmental Regulation: Evidence from the VW Emissions Scandal
Recent news reports have focused on VW's Emissions cheating scandal. The fully story is available here. For those interested in the costs and benefits of regulation, this case study reveals information about the cost of environmental regulation.
Macroeconomics and Reality Revisited
Each Sunday I read David Warsh's piece. This week's column reports a strange quote from Harvard's Larry Summers.
A Relaxed Economist
On September 16th 2015, I taught my USC environmental economics class from 2pm until 345pm that day and then took my overnight bag and got on a train to Culver City. From Culver City, I took Uber to a UCLA Institute of the Environment retreat near Malibu.
A Few More Details on the Refugee Charter City
In a relatively close distance to Syria, there are many nations such as Romania who might be willing to participate in a migrant auction.
Different Vintages of Human Capital
Haishi Li is a brand new Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago's Economics Department. He is a friend and co-author of mine. He sent me a photo of himself next to a photo of the 1988 Entering Class at the University of Chicago. This photo is now 27 years old.
Human Ingenuity: The Rise of Fake Meat
Nick Kristoff has written a NY Times piece that I learned from and enjoyed reading (a first!). He celebrates the rise of "fake meat".
He writes;
"So look out.
Paul Romer's Optimistic Vision for the Role that New Cities Play in Coping with Change
This week, I am declaring that Paul Romer wins the competition for posting the most interesting blog post among the economics heavyweights named; Krugman, Romer , Cochrane and Summers.
What Happens When Faculty Attend an Overnight Retreat?
Don't worry, this will be a G-rated story. For the last day, the UCLA IOES core faculty held a retreat at the Topanga Canyon Inn. Since I'm on leave this year, I haven't seen several of my colleagues for months. I arrived just before dinner on Wednesday night.
Economists Have Failed to Educate the Public About How Markets Operate
Professor Timothy Snyder of Yale must be a very smart guy. He is tenured at Yale and my wife greatly respects his book Bloodlands. Google Scholar suggests that has been his big work.
Can We Adapt to a Worst Case Scenario? Or Will Don Trump Continue to live in NYC in the Year 2400?
The NY Times often features Justin Gillis. Mr. Gillis is very worried about our future if we fail to cap our greenhouse gas emissions. In a piece just published, I will report a few of his choice quotes.
The Costa/Kahn Family's 40% Market Share of the September 2015 Journal of Economic Literature
Dora and I have a 40% market share of the new September 2015 Journal of Economic Literature. Her piece on long run trends in health is better than mine but my review of Jeffrey Sachs' new book The Age of Sustainable Development might interest you.
Forecasting and Adapting to Climate Change Fire Risk
This year I am a faculty member at both USC and UCLA. I am quite impressed with both sets of colleagues.
Free Entry and Perfect Competition Among Economics' Superstars
The probability that a blog post will be accepted for publication (with only a light revision required) is quite high! I have often argued that academic economics would make greater scientific progress if our superstars "stay in the game" and write more and engage more rather than drifting off int
Using Behavioral Economics to Reduce the Count of Undiagnosed Type II Diabetics
Many behavioral economists seek to improve our quality of life and are especially interested in helping the less fortunate. This article claims that up to 33% of diabetics don't know that they are diabetic.
An Auction for European Migrant Destinations?
In the car today as we drove back to Los Angeles, my son asked me where all of the European refugees from Syria should move to within Europe.
Interest Groups and the Competition Between Green and Dirty Technologies
While "enlightened" entrepreneurs such as Bloomberg, Musk and Steyer celebrate the nascent green economy, there are other entrepreneurs growing rich from fracking activity. Today there is a race between "green technologies" that have a smaller climate change impact than fossil fuel technologies.
Some California Carbon Dioxide Emissions Arithmetic
The NY Times has published a long article about Gov. Brown's policy nudge to reduce California's petroleum consumption by 50% below today's level by the year 2030. Is this an impressive "Green Big Push"? Can California stop climate change?
California consumes 11% of the nation's gasoline.
China's Rail Firms Jump the U.S "Buy America Act" Wall
China, Japan and South Korea have gained valuable experience producing high quality public transit buses, subways and railroad equipment. One reason that these nations acquired this knowledge is a large home market for selling such capital.
Harvest at Night? Changing Work Shifts and Climate Change Adaptation
In Rome, garbage pickup takes place in the middle of night in order not to disrupt the city during peak hours.
Does Attending Class Lower Athletic Performance?
Are college athletics and classroom learning substitutes or complements? In this blog post, I propose a simple experimental design for testing this. Consider the following example. USC's academic year features two semesters (Fall and Spring) and the school year starts in late August.
Tax the 1%?
I'm not sure why I received the following email:
Hello Matthew,
I am writing to inform you that the renowned Primm Ranch, located on 10 acres and five minutes away from the Las Vegas Strip, will sell at auction without reserve through industry leader Concierge Auctions.
How Does Nature Adapt to Climate Change? A Field Experiment
Wired Magazine reports that John List and J-PAL are not the only researchers running field experiments. Ecologists are running "out of sample" field experiments to test which plants, trees and creatures can adapt to extreme heat that they have not been exposed to in the past.
