Known Unknowns Revisited: The Case of Property Risk in the Age of Climate Risk
Back in 1986, when I was a student at the LSE, I didn't read The Guardian. Flash forward 30 years and I know read it. Take a look at this piece from Australia.
Non-Market Valuation of Gorillas: A Data Point from the Cincinnati Zoo
At a Cincinnati Zoo, a young child was at risk of being attacked by a gorilla. To reduce this risk, the zoo killed the gorilla.
Refugee Permit Markets?
The Economist Magazine has published a long special piece on Europe and war refugees. Unless I missed it, this "politics" focused piece didn't investigate market approaches to handling the crisis.
The Transaction Cost Economics of Food Recycling
Before the Smart Phone, imagine the following situation. A restaurant on one side of town has 500 tomatoes delivered and due to unexpectedly low salad demand it only needs 80. In the past, the cost minimizing option was to dump the remaining 420 tomatoes in the garbage.
Partisan Climate Politics Continues
Back in 2010, I published my Climatopolis book arguing that the economics of climate adaptation becomes the key issue as global GHG emissions will continue to rise because of the global free rider problem and rising fossil fuel consumption.
Endogenous Urban Disamenities: The Case of Public Urination in NYC
Early work in environmental and urban economics treated a city's non-market characteristics as fixed and exogenous. So, think of San Francisco's beautiful climate and topography and views.
International Trade and the Cost of Comparative Advantage
In a letter to the WSJ today, Thomas Gibson argues that relying on lower cost imports is not always in the importer's best interest. Do we teach our students this point in Econ 101?
"The Wall Street Journal seems to find the American steel industry inconvenient.
Do Econ 101 Teachers Spend Too Much Time on the Perfect Competition Model?
I will be teaching Econ 101 at USC this fall. There will be at least 150 students in my class. There are several Principles textbooks I could use that charge different prices. Greg Mankiw's book is priced at $219. Joe Stiglitz's book is priced at $176.
NYC's Mayor Slows Down Efficient Land Reallocation (and local economic growth?)
An active research topic in macro focuses on "productivity wedges". Many scholars are building on Hsieh and Klenow's work to measure how large are the differences in the marginal productivity of firms with respect to their use of capital and land.
The WSJ Doesn't Bash New Chemical Regulations
On the front page of the WSJ today, there is an article about the Congress passing bipartisan legislation intended to reduce consumer exposure to dangerous chemicals. The tone of the article is optimistic that this new regulation is better than the old TSCA regulation.
Does Exxon Face a "Change or Die" Moment?
The BBC has published a dramatic piece reporting that some of Exxon's shareholders are making a major stand that this fossil fuel intensive huge company must change its game and diversify away from oil. The NY Times has published a similar front page article.
Paul Krugman vs. John Cochrane on Achieving a 4% Annual U.S Economic Growth Increase
4% annual macro growth would be great. Today, Paul Krugman offers a couple of suggestions for how to achieve this and he explores how the U.S economy grew in the 1990s. In June 2015, John Cochrane offered a much more specific plan that would achieve this key goal. Will Dr. K really allow Dr. C.
A Direct Quote from Yale's President's Graduation Speech
Yale's President Peter Salovey appears to be defending Prof Erika Christakis and Prof. Nicholas A. Christakis in this graduation talk.
The Consequences of "Yelp Reviews" of Complicated Services
At the end of a semester, students fill out teaching evaluations. This short run assessment is becoming more common in judging hotels, restaurants and other entities besides for Econ Profs. Here is a piece talking about this issue. Here is Yelp's website. A couple of basic questions; 1.
Lessons from Sweden's Six Hour Work Day Experiment?
This will be a blog post about fixed costs associated with working; namely commute times and health insurance. Why? This article celebrates Sweden for launching a six hour work day experiment.
A "Rorschach Test" Based on a Sentence from Eduardo Porter's Recent Column in the NY Times
On May 10th, Eduardo Porter published this piece in the NY Times. I will reprint a single sentence of his and use this as a "Rorschach Test".
Some Quotes from Eduardo Porter's Column in the NY Times
Eduardo Porter is not an economist but the New York Times pays him to write its "Economics Scene". It appears that a physicist can express himself in a high profile outlet about economics (but not vice-versa). Permit me to directly quote from his piece today.
Water Conservation Efforts at UCLA May Backfire: The Case of No Longer Providing Free Towels at the Gym
To reduce its aggregate water consumption, UCLA will soon stop giving towels to users of its gym. This will not reduce overall water consumption if sweaty people bring their own clean towels that they wash at home.
The 2016 Exxon Shareholder Annual Meeting Vote Nudges on Climate Change Policies
I am an ExxonMobil shareholder. I just received my nudge to vote on various corporate issues. If you read through this document, you will see that Stanford's Michael Boskin is well compensated for his Exxon work as a Director of this huge company.
Green Jobs Revisited: Will Efforts to Combat Climate Change Increase Income Inequality in the Short Run?
Tom Steyer may want to call up some Berkeley economists this morning. Here is a direct quote from the NY Times that refers to him; “We object to the political agenda of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Will a News Surge in San Francisco Nudge Local Officials to Tackle the Homeless Challenge?
June 29th 2016 will offer an interesting natural experiment regarding San Francisco's homeless problem.
A Few Thoughts About the WSJ Interview with Russ Roberts
The WSJ has published a high profile interview with Russ Roberts of GMU. While I always enjoy popular press profiles of economists, this piece throws a misplaced punch at modern academic economics.
Why are LA's .01% Converting their Backyard Tennis Courts into 4500 square foot "Sheds"?
I was not invited to this recent dinner party at Steve Tisch's house. So, I learned several things from this NY Times article.
1.
Will Conservatives Boycott Facebook?
A quick peek at Facebook's recent stock price dynamics suggests that the market doesn't believe that a conservative boycott of FB will take place or that even if it does that it wouldn't impact the company's growth.
Of Mice and Men: Climate Change Adaptation Possibilities for Creatures vs. People
The NY Times has a nice article about the challenge that a set of birds called "red knots" now face in our warmer world. Imagine if people couldn't buy food or store food. Imagine if your diet was focused on just a few varieties of nutrients.
