To Fight Climate Change, Should Progressives Pool $ and Purchase Coal to Keep it in the Ground?
This webpage says that the MacArthur Foundation seeks to fight climate change. San Francisco's Tom Steyer has focused on this policy agenda.
Can Global Peer Pressure Cause a Reduction in a Nation's GHG Emissions?
Here is a nice quote from a recent Wired Magazine article; "And sure, the Paris deal isn’t perfect (it effectively relies on peer pressure to make sure countries comply).
British Adaptation to Flood Risk
The NY Times reports that parts of York, Leeds and Manchester have recently been flooded. Such natural disasters raise several adaptation questions.
Performance Criteria for Judging the Causal Effect of the COP 21 Conference
What will be the medium term causal effect of the COP 21 Carbon Mitigation Conference? The NY Times posited that it will save the world. Is this true? How would researchers test for its causal effects? In this blog post, I will sketch some performance metrics.
Power Couples in Big Cities: Implications for Economic Inequality
In his Sunday NY Times, Tyler Cowen has written a nice article about power couple formation and their implications for household income inequality. Back in the year 2000, Dora Costa and I published a QJE paper documenting the rise of power couples clustering in major cities.
A Preview of Early 2016
I am sitting in the greater Santa Barbara area patrolling the beach after having spent a week in NYC and another week in New Delhi. In February, I will turn 50 and this unfortunately leads to some introspection and some sad thoughts about how time just keeps ticking.
Polluted Air in New Delhi, India
I am sitting in a Newark Airport Hotel after flying for 15 hours from Delhi back to the USA. My flight left Delhi at 1130pm and landed at 440am --- a long red-eye flight. I was in the Delhi area for 6 days. On Wednesday of last week, we toured Delhi.
No More Free Riders? Lessons from the Paris Climate Change Mitigation Treaty
A major newspaper rejected this editorial submission that I "publish" below. While rejection stings, I think I am making a new point that the climate change concerned media doesn't want to talk about.
No More Free Riders? Lessons from the Paris Climate Change Treaty
Matthew E.
The Future of Miami and Durable Capital Revisited
Elizabeth Kolbert has a new piece in the New Yorker; that focuses on the future of Miami. It raises questions about how much we will suffer from sea level rise and who will suffer and who will gain. I first quote her and then I discuss my research on this topic.
Blue Skies in Urban India?
Tomorrow I fly to New Delhi. I have not been to India before so I've been watching YouTube videos to get a sense of what quality of life is like there for the rich, middle class and the poor.
The Optimal Durability of Capital and Sea Level Rise: The Case of Shanghai
The NY Times publishes new maps demonstrating that under business as usual scenarios for global GHG emissions that parts of current Shanghai will be submerged by the year 2100. These predictions are meant to nudge the CCP to agree to more aggressive greenhouse gas emissions cuts.
Death and the Media
In November 2015, I had the opportunity to participate in a media economics conference at the University of Chicago. Here is the video. I'm talking about this paper which is joint with Dora Costa.
What Do I Have in Common With Ben Bernanke and Milton Friedman?
Last night I had the opportunity to talk to Paul Romer about my 2016 Princeton Press book. I did not
realize that I have bald spot until I saw this picture. Live and learn.
Q & A Focused on The Micro Economics of Climate Change Adaptation
I am not in Paris. I wish the COP 21 attendees well as they try to overcome the global free rider challenge of reducing our GHG emissions. As I argued in my 2010 book Climatopolis, global CO2 emissions will continue to rise and thus we must focus on adapting to what we have unleashed.
The Environmental and Urban Economics Interface and the Chicago Fire
A fire is burning in Chicago at an industrial metal recycling facility. Why does such activity even exist in a densely populated wealthy city? What would Coase say? To begin to answer these questions, let's return to Paul Krugman's work on economic geography.
Will Climate Change Impact Your Portfolio?
The NY Times fumbles today in a piece by Paul Sullivan buried in the business section. In his piece Climate Change and Choosing Where to Invest, Mr. Sullivan mixes two different ideas and manages to mangle a potentially promising topic.
The Coase Theorem and the Hawaii Thirty Meter Telescope
Astrophysics offers a new test of the Coase Theorem. These brainy scholars like to look into a telescope and see what the universe was doing billions of years ago.
The 1993 Econ Ph.D. Cohort
REPEC's performance metrics turn everyone in the profession into a single scalar value. Here is the current ranking of the world's class of 1993.
Joseph Engelberger: A Foe of the Luddites
The New York Times has published an obituary of Joseph F. Engelberger. An early leader in robotics, Mr Engelberger was not concerned about that labor unions opposed his innovations.
Climate Change and Economic Growth
How will a warming world affect economic growth? Burke, Hsiang and Miguel made world news with their prediction that climate change will lower world income by 23% by the year 2100. Their technical paper is here and here is an example of the news coverage.
A Few Thoughts About Krugman's Piece on Inequality in Cities
Dr. Krugman has written a great column in today's NY Times focused on the consequences of increased income inequality in Superstar cities such as Manhattan.
Some Open Questions About China's Economic Development
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.
Thanksgiving in Carpinteria California
The Pacific Ocean and blue skies and 70 degree weather are good stuff.
Some Simple Economics of the Paris COP21 Climate Meetings
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.
Dynamics in Climate Science Beliefs: The Role of Exxon and Media Slant
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.
