James Heckman has written many papers  (and see this) about the importance of developing non-cognitive "soft skills" in young children.  He argues that such early age investments can build up these skills and that these skills pay off in terms of higher future wages.

New York City runs 11 very expensive public hospitals that cater to the city's poor.  The New York Times reports that the Mayor wants to inject $2 billion dollars in subsidies to help the public hospitals to balance their budgets.  There are several interesting pieces of economics here.

Last month, Rhiannon Jerch, Shan Li and I released a NBER Working Paper studying the cost of moving a public sector bus one mile and how this varies across cities and over time.

The NY  Times has published another article highlighting that life isn't fair.  This is a fair point.  In this case, the article is about product differentiation documenting the fact that the wealthy are treated better than everyone and that everyone knows this.

On April 7th 2016, the USC Economics Department held a great event in downtown LA.  Three leading macro economists, Michael Melvin of Blackrock and my USC colleagues (Prof. Joshua Aizenman and Prof Hashem Pesaran) joined me to discuss the state of the world economy.

Nature has published a new paper that has enraged some climate activists for the wrong reasons.  Here is an example of the headlines it is generating.  Let's introduce some basic concepts from environmental and urban economics.

Terrible heavy rain (16 inches!) has hit Houston on Monday 4/18/2016.   To protect its population Rice University cancelled school on Monday and Tuesday.

I was very sorry to read Prof. Stan Wellisz's obituary.    Stan and I were colleagues from 1993 to 1996 and from 1998 to 2000.  Columbia's Economics Department was a distinctive place in the mid 1990s.

In Iowa in February 2016, among voters between the ages of 17 and 29, Bernie Sanders won 84 percent of the vote to Hillary Clinton's 14 percent.

USC Economics has had a very good day.  We have now heard from almost all of the Ph.D students who were admitted into our program and our yield is extremely good.  Our recruiting committee worked quite hard to recruit an excellent group and we have done our job.  UCLA Econ should keep an eye on us.

On May 20th 2016, the 6.6 mile expansion of the Los Angeles Expo Line will take place and ridership will begin.  This east/west train stops at USC.  As of April 2016, its most Western stop is Culver City. Soon, Culver City will be connected to the beach (Santa Monica).

The NY Times reports front page news that California has a new nascent industry (besides for Hollywood and Silicon Valley);  the emerging pot growing business.  Such pot growing is land intensive and it is electricity intensive (as it takes place inside).

I am a graduate of the LSE and I closely follow new research from its esteemed scholars.  Last week, there were many world news headlines (see below) based on this new study from the Grantham Institute.

Dan Lyons pulls back the curtain on what it is like to work at HubSpot.    To appreciate what HubSpot does, watch this.

But Mr.

It is official, after a 17 year hiatus --- I'm returning to teaching Principles of Economics.  This is what I want. UCLA wouldn't let me do it.  USC will.  I will walk in armed only with the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and this free textbook.

In today's WSJ, Joseph Epstein asks a great question;  "These Five are the Best We Can Do?"   Being President of the USA is a pretty good job. There are probably 200 million Americans over the age of 35 who were born here.

The Science Editors at the NY Times thought they had a great story examining how climate change will impact NASA.  NASA has many of its assets in coastal areas (see the photo below) because it is in the business of launching stuff into space and accidents happen.

In the aftermath of the Great Recession, some economists are more hesitant to issue quantitative predictions about the future.

The New York Times has a nice front page piece explaining the challenges that the Washington Metro subway lines face.  They are old and not being maintained.   One economic explanation for these facts is that Metro Transit Agencies are investing in labor not capital.

In Los Angeles, I use public transit every day that I commute to USC.  While I used to walk to UCLA, I don't mind my longer commute to USC.   Once I get to the Expo Line Train, I often see students and Post-Docs from USC Economics and we talk during the ride.

It is front page news in the NY Times that coastal areas are likely to face even faster sea level rise by the year 2100. So, we have been given over 50 years notice that we must get ready for a serious threat.  I suggest that capitalism can figure out how to adapt to this threat.

My Research and My Books
My Research and My Books
To learn more about my research click here.

To purchase one of my four books, click here.
Blog Archive
Blog Archive
Loading