Environmental and Urban Economics

I don't like to leave Los Angeles. I only fly away when I anticipate that I might learning something at my destination.  On December 9th, I'll have an opportunity to sit down with Professor Paul Romer of NYU to discuss China.  My parents will be there and they are eager to meet Paul.  I first met Paul in April 1988 when I attended the University of Chicago's Ph.D. recruitment day.    Spend two seconds studying his Google Scholar page and you will see his impact on the profession.   Urban economics has received a great boost by his ongoing interest in our core questions.

On December 9th, I want to talk about my May 2016 Princeton Press book but I already know what my book says.  Google Scholar points you to my academic papers focused on environmental and urban issues in China.

Starting on November 30th, negotiation teams from all over the world will go to Paris. Many academics will be there but you won't see me. I"ll be at sunny USC.   The final treaty won't have a hard carbon cap with enforcement nor will there be a global carbon tax.  Without these real incentives, can the global carbon curve be bent (let alone decline in absolute value)?  I doubt it.

Take a look at these data from 1960 to the present.

The Washington Post reports about a new study that argues fossil fuel corporate interests (think of Exxon) have confused the American people through a relentless "mis-information" campaign regarding the causes of global warming.   PNAS has published the paper and it is available here.

Cooling vests offer one pathway for keeping us cool in future summer heat and also warming us up when it is too cold.  The Economist Magazine reports  about ongoing innovation taking place at Finland's VTT Technical Research Center.  Do you see the simple econ 101 point that demand brings about supply?

Many "doom and gloomers" forget the simple economics of introducing new product varieties.

Sociology lives on.  The NY Times reports that when NBA teams visit sleepy cities such as Indianapolis or Salt Lake City  that the visiting team players grow bored.  Hollywood has figured out that this is a great time to offer a free screening of new movies such as Spectre so that the players can watch , be photographed watching the movie and then will tweet to their followers about what they liked about the movie.

While the challenges vary on a state by state basis, here is one current report card grading states on their preparation for climate change.  Here I list a set of "free market" policies to facilitate adaptation.  For those who have read my 2010 Climatopolis book, this will be familiar.

1.  Sign up more households, farmers, industrial and agricultural customers for dynamic pricing of water and electricity.

In the past, I've done some writing on social capital and civic engagement.   I just put the theory to the test by volunteering to serve on USC Econ's PHD Admissions Committee.     USC Economics is world renown for its excellence in econometrics.

Now that I have moved from UCLA to USC, I have the opportunity to teach undergraduate urban economics again.  I taught this course at Columbia and Harvard back in the 1990s but I haven't taught it since 1998.   My friends are trying to help me to teach a good course.    Walker Hanlon has given me his UCLA course material  .  Jan Brueckner's book is both excellent and affordable.    Today, I just received a new book by William Fischel called "Zoning Rules!".

To better appreciate my 2015 November Journal of Regional Sciences Lecture at the Portland Regional Sciences Meetings, you should read this NY Times long piece about melting Ice Sheets and their potential impact on our coastal cities.