Environmental and Urban Economics

As Elon Musk's Tesla ramps up production of the Model 3, will the firm enjoy large learning by doing gains in productivity (and lower costs due to "pin factory" specialization by parts suppliers due to economies of scale) or will quality decline due to the "big rush"?  Do serious IO economists have

For years, I have argued that climate change will boost real estate prices in regions of the U.S that prove to have an edge in adaptation (i.e relatively cool summers and warm winters).  I published my paper back in 2009 and then several other teams started doing similar work.

Economists have taught zillions of students that if investors are risk neutral and forward looking that the value of a piece of real estate today is the expected present discounted value of its future rents.

Read this piece.  It suggests that we will face increased "fat tail" risk in the future as climate change will raise the probability of several different corn regions having low output crops.  How will capitalism help us adapt to this potentially serious problem?

1.  Storage.

Here is MTA's 2017 budget.  It will spend $17 billion dollars to keep the New York City region's buses and subways moving. That's a lot of $!  Look at the pie chart on page I-1.  Only 23% of the budget is spent on capital goods.

Politico's piece is interesting.

While the Sports Section doesn't have any new NBA news, the NY Times has published two really interesting pieces related to major themes in urban economics.

The USC fall semester starts in about 4 weeks.  Our football team is ranked #4 in the pre-season and the economics department is ranked #22 (on USA REPEC).    The University is investing to upgrade the building capital stock. Here is the new University Village.

Zillow reports that the median home price in Alabama is $126,000 while in California it is $500,000.  Why?  The NY Times reports today on this issue.

When I walk around the Venice Beach area, I see plenty of two story buildings and homes that could be knocked down and rebuilt with 6 story and taller buildings. The WSJ poses a great puzzle today on why more housing isn't being built in this paradise.

When can a demand curve slope up?  Gary Becker has an under cited JPE that offers a theory.  In his "snob good model",  my pleasure from consuming a good decreases if more people consume it.

The respected climate scientist Jim Hansen says many interesting things in this interview.    Below, I reproduce one direct quote and then comment on it.

To think for a minute at the scarier end of the spectrum.

Dave Roberts has written a thought provoking blog post.  My read of his piece is that he is telling a "Elvis Presley" story.

The New York Times has published a piece about Rockaway Beach in the New York City area of Queens. The Engineers have an expensive plan ($4 billion dollars) for defending the area against flooding and the local politicians seek to have the federal government pay for it.

Budget constraints bind.  Read this NY Times Editorial in which the NYC mayor is lectured for not spending enough on subways.  My simple theory for why this mayor and past mayors have under-invested is because almost all of the $ goes to the public sector transportation unions.

Read this sensible piece published in the esteemed Economist Magazine about the possible effects of climate change.  A key point that the piece focuses on is that poor counties in the U.S may become poorer because of increased heat and climate risk.

I am a huge supporter of Jerry Brown's effort  to continue California's GHG cap and trade program.   I oppose Jerry Brown's use of this revenue to pay for his pet Bullet Train.

Read this piece and let me reprint some quotes;

"The present tense of climate change — the destruction we’ve already baked into our future — is horrifying enough.

I type my grandfather's name (Harry Kahn) into Google and this great search engine returns almost nothing.  He lived from 1912 until 2007 but Google has forgotten him.

The WSJ has at least two fascinating pieces today.  First, there is an interview with one of the main "gene editors".  Second, there is a long piece on the positive role that precision medicine and real time monitoring will play in raising our overall health.

Transport economics is a lively field.

I wasn't Gary Becker's best student but bear with me and permit me to pose an Econ 301 problem set question that I could imagine that Becker/Mulligan/Murphy would now pose to the new generation of UChicago Students.

The NY Times has published an interesting piece documenting that China is simultaneously promising to reduce its own GHG emissions while it is exporting its technology and providing the financing for developing countries to build new coal fired power plants.

Ron Lieber has written an outstanding piece for the NY Times.   He gently nudges healthy middle aged, upper middle class NY Times readers that they are likely to benefit from Medicaid in the future.