I am happy to see that the sophisticated NY Times Arts Section is filled with "elasticity of demand" hypotheses in this piece. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is "free" but has a suggested donation. To the deep surprise of non-economists, this isn't yielding that much revenue.
The Director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment (my old home) is Peter Kareiva. Here is a recent Variety Fair piece he wrote with a very successful business man. They seek to use Hollywood's influence to nudge perceptions about the risks posed by climate change.
Chris Blatmann and Stefan Dercon have published a great NY Times piece about their new field experiment set in Ethiopia. Throughout the developing world, urbanization is taking place. People who were farmers are moving to cities to take industrial jobs.
My first two years at USC have flown by. As I prepare to become the New Chairman of USC Economics, I look forward to helping our #22 ranked department take its next steps. A big part of my focus will be undergraduate and graduate education.
Last week Paul Krugman pointed out the negative labor market consequences of the rise of Amazon over downtown retail. Today, the University of Chicago's new Dean of the Harris School suggests that the health care sector should reduce its labor/output ratio in order to reduce its costs.
The NY Times Magazine has published a whole issue today about climate change. I've skimmed all of the articles and I believe that the magazine chose to avoid the economists (except in a brief correct quote here) for some insights.
An airplane is an interesting "Commons". You pay for the right to enter the plane and if you pay more you enter earlier ("now boarding Business Class") and get a nicer seat. But, once you are on the plane the fight begins for overhead space, armrests and toilets.
The NY Times provides an impassioned list of likely effects of climate change. While I skimmed the list quickly, it is notable that the list focuses on non-urban consequences. Yet, all over the world we live in cities.
Back 25 years ago, Sherwin Rosen tried to teach me many economics ideas. I think of him as I read Robert Reich's December 2016 piece "Have Liberal States Won America's Tax Experiment?" Here are a few quotes from Mr. Reich.
In May 2016, Princeton Press published my co-authored book Blue Skies Over Beijing: Economic Growth and the Environment in China. Today, I was sent a kind book review by G. Tracy Mehan. Not all of my books have received such kind reviews.
The NY Times presents a long article focused on a good question posed by the billionaire Steve Ballmer. Mr Ballmer wants to know what our federal, state and local governments spend $ on and what we get for this expenditure. In a series of recent papers, I have explored this same question.
Paul Krugman has written an important column for the NY Times. He asks why lost resource extraction jobs (coal miners) garner so much of the President's attention relative to jobs lost in other sectors such as suburban mall retail and downtown Macy department store closings.
A black teacher argues in the NY Times today that black students gain more from having him as their teacher. This "productivity from own group" exposure was one theme of my Civil War work with Dora Costa.
As I read this LA Times article, I see that a real debate is about to begin on California's carbon cap and trade program. A basic question in public finance economics focuses on economic incidence.
In today's NY Times, Steven Lohr has published a great piece about a new National Academy of Sciences report calling for private sector "Big Data" to be used as one source of real time knowledge on the extent and in which sectors that robots and AI is taking over human work.
CNN reports that President Trump's Florida real estate might be flooded by the year 2100. If we take the efficient markets hypothesis seriously and if we discount future rents, what are the implications for the value of his property today? Devin Bunten and I explore these issues in this paper.
How do U.S firms respond to job safety regulations? Do they simply comply with them? Or do they offshore to avoid them? Or do they fire workers and hire robots to take their place? I thought about this as a I read this NY Times opinion piece.
Ford is planning to expand its production of electric vehicles as it plans to sell these cars in China. This could raise air pollution in parts of China. As argued in this recent AER paper, when electricity is generated by coal, EVs can be worse for the environment than gasoline vehicles.
The NY Times has written a very nice article about the challenge that China's cities will face due to climate change adaptation.
On Thursday April 13th, I will give the David S. Saurman Provocative Lecture at San Jose State University. My friend and co-author Matt Holian serves on their faculty. I am aware that I am a provocative thinker. Google "Matthew Kahn and Joe Romm" to see what provocation looks like.
I'll be interviewed this morning on KERA NPR radio about my new Brookings Hamilton Project Paper on urban climate change adaptation. My March 2017 paper allowed me to present a sequel to my 2010 Climatopolis book.
The lead editorial in the WSJ on 4/3/2017 argues that the well known Autor, Dorn and Hanson AER is wrong! (UPDATE: I now see that ADH have written their own rebuttal posted here. This is fascinating on several levels. #appliedmicromatters! Permit me to explain.
As President Trump rolls back carbon mitigation regulations, how many consumers will respond by engaging in "voluntary restraint" such that they reduce their GHG emissions even if regulation does not force them to do so? If the price of gasoline were high enough, most people would seek out fuel ef
Mike Bloomberg was a great mayor of NYC and would be a great President of our nation. Here is his recent NY Times piece celebrating state and local progress on reducing carbon emissions. As a proud Californian, I fully support the "low carbon" push but "Iron Mike" over-states his case.
The NY Times has published a piece with a great title and a mediocre analysis. Yes, women play a crucial role in combating climate change but not for the reasons the piece talks about. In this piece, I'd like to discuss some ideas of Gary Becker and some ideas of Julian Simon.
