Environmental and Urban Economics

London has long featured extremely high housing prices and has been ranked with New York City and San Fran and Los Angeles and Paris as one of the world's most desirable cities.

The New York Times has some fun mocking Don Trump today.   Here is a quote from this piece. "At one point, Mr. Trump even compared his renovation of Trump Turnberry to how he is hoping to overhaul the United States.

The NY Times reports that the old in the UK support leaving the EU while the young wanted to stay remain in the EU.

While environmentalists sometimes celebrate ingenuity in turning waste into a productive input, the NY Times reports a case where this approach may have been taken too far.

During my years on the UCLA faculty, I made many friends across the University.  Rick Sander is one of them.   Today, his work faces criticism in this NY Times piece by Richard Lempert.    Dr.

Professor Nordhaus started the political business cycles literature many years ago.   As I read about Elon Musk's running up a lot of debt as he tries to push Tesla forward, I wonder whether Tesla will go bust under a Republican President?  Given that Mr.

This is an interesting article.  Researchers are spreading the news that rapid climate change in Africa may sharply reduce maize yields.

"Crowding Out" is a powerful economic idea.

I am very sad to learn that Prof. Phoebus Dhrymes has recently passed away.   We were colleagues at Columbia from 1993 to 1996 and from 1998 to 2000.  He was a highly skilled econometrician who wrote comprehensive econometrics textbooks.

Do leaders matter for determining economic growth?  A New York Times OP-Ed writer claims "not really" in this piece.  In contrast,  Ben Jones and Ben Olken argue using cross-national econometric evidence that "leaders matter" (especially in autocratic states).

Does economic research lead or lag scholars' methodological contributions in other fields?  This obituary suggests that we lag. The NY Times has published a touching obituary of Professor Robert Paine.  My UCLA colleague Peter Kareiva (Paine's student) is quoted.

Ever since I graduated from Hamilton College back in 1988 and entered a Ph.D. econ program, I knew that there were two very successful economists who also attended Hamilton.  John Donohue of Stanford wrote the famous crime and abortion paper with Steve Levitt.

Yes, this blog post's title is a mouthful but let me help you to digest it because I only think deep thoughts (I'm half kidding).

Most species do not fly and can't afford airplane tickets so they need "connected areas" in order to migrate from place to place.

The NY Times has a great piece about air pollution rising in Mexico City.   The article claims that such pollution mainly is due to the transportation sector.    So, let's start with some algebra and then dive into some empirical research.

Define N as the population of a city.

Will this merger between Microsoft and Linkedin cause any trouble for Facebook?  It crossed my mind that there are 24 hours a day that can be roughly divided between sleep, work and play.

My last two dissertation students at UCLA Economics have graduated.  I congratulate Owen Hearey and Devin Bunten for their hard work.  Over the years, they taught me a lot of economics and they heard me crack a lot of bad jokes.  Here is Owen's dissertation and he is Devin's dissertation.

The WSJ has published a thought provoking letter to the editor by Oliver Watson.

June 12, 2016 1:05 p.m. ET

4 COMMENTS

Regarding your editorial “Jerry Brown’s Budget Blowout” (May 19): Do Gov.

A garbage pickup strike is now unfolding in Paris.  The tourists have noticed that the place smells.   During a time of economic uncertainty, safe government jobs provide a low risk sinecure for many workers.   Take a look at this chart below (the source).

The NY Times has published a piece that optimistically argues that conservatives are increasingly willing to engage on conservation issues.  I hope this is true but the author ignores some basic economic issues.

This article sketches a useful "teachable moment".  Climate change will cause geographic specific shocks.  For example, there can be a heat wave in Moscow or a flood in New Orleans.

The voters of San Francisco have approved a local referendum to raise taxes to earmark the money to fund wetland preservation.  While wetlands provide many eco-services, they also reduce flood risk.  In my 2010 book Climatopolis, I predicted that we would see this.

It appears that the Clinton Campaign will make ample use of "micro targeting" of reaching out to specific voters while the Trump Campaign will not invest heavily in such "Big Data" approaches and instead its leader will issue subtle tweets such as "Crooked Hilary" and "Make America Great".

Using 2016 technologies, Singapore is a thriving city. Here are the data on its monthly average temperature.  The high temperature averages in the upper 80s (F).  How does this nation thrive in the heat?  The answer is simple. It is an urban nation and activity occurs inside and at night.

My previous post discussed the impact of labor market regulation on employment.  Firms that anticipate that labor protection regulation raises the costs of firing workers hire fewer of them. Welcome to dynamic economic logic.

Jean Tirole may want to offer the French people a refresher course in Econ 101.  Read this opinion piece.    In Europe, the unemployment rate is very high.  This means that there are people who seek a job who can't find one.

If you want to see the NBA Warriors play in their home stadium, then you will be paying more and more.    The NY Times is concerned about this unsurprising fact.  Rising demand coupled with a vertical supply curve may lead to a higher market clearing price.

I live six miles east of the Pacific Ocean.  As I drive west to the beach along Wilshire blvd, there are many upscale car dealerships that take up a whole block because cars can't be stocked on top of each other. I have thought that this was an inefficient use of land.

Would Milton Friedman have predicted that the Switzerland would reject his policy proscription for how to help the poor?  Of course, Dr.

Professor Summers poses some important hypotheses about Donald Trump in this FT piece.    Micro economists model people as if they have a clear goal and use their scarce resources including time and markets and their talents to achieve their life goals.

A fire is burning in Britney Spears' town of Calabasas (a Los Angeles suburb) just north of Malibu.

The fire started around 4:15 p.m. PT Saturday when a pickup truck struck a power pole on Mulholland Highway in Calabasas, the sheriff's department said.

Ball don't lie and neither does REPEC.  USC Economics is currently ranked #27 among U.S Economics Departments    even though our Department is currently 35% smaller than our rivals.

In the WSJ journal today Peggy Noonan delivers a fascinating quote from JAG; "We support Trumpism, defined as secure borders, economic nationalism, interests-based foreign policy, and above all judging every government action through a single lens: does this help or harm Americans? For now, the prin

The NY Times has published a great piece on net zero energy homes being built in Fontana California (many miles east of Los Angeles).

Forget "Deconstructing Harry".  Harvard Prof. Ed Glaeser's work is analyzed by   Prof Jamie Peck.  He delivers a full "deconstruction" (I don't know what this word means or if I'm using it correctly) of neo-classical urban economics and uses Ed's work to make the key points.