Alex Tabarrok (that's not Alex to the right...that's Taylor Lautner) at Marginal Revolution argues that on-line education may fundamentally change the market for teaching in higher education:
I have argued that universities will move to a superstar market for teachers in which [...]
One of the great early stories from SuperFreakonomics is the finding that “even after factoring in the deaths [innocent bystanders from drunk driving], walking drunk leads to five times as many deaths per mile as driving drunk.” The substantive fact is not only surprising, but the story also metaphorically [...]
Check out the footer to see the changes:
Author pic - I hate when I get ragged on for one of Tim's stupid posts Reblog - "Encourage your readers to share your content with their followers ... Reblogged content links directly back to your blog, driving traffic from your readers and their social networks. [...]From the Energy Collective on the "dump your girlfriend" analogy:
If my girlfriend was stealing my money, lying to me about what she was going to do for me, and running around with other guys, and appeared to have contracted a social disease, dumping her might be in order.
But, what if [...]
"This unprecedented and extremely generous investment rivals the amounts Branson spent [...]
I'd like to go point-by-point*, but suffice it to say: decent explanation of Cap and Trade up until 3:02...after that, a mixed-up tree-hugging criticism of markets using Cap and Trade as a strawman.
*UPDATE: Reader Kira points us to this point-by-point rebuttal of the video. My opinion of the rebuttal--nice [...]"Farmers were reluctant when fertilizer was first proposed ... or seed technology ... but they embraced the technology, and the result is agriculture production that is the envy of the world," [U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom] Vilsack said. "I understand the concern in farm country, but if [Cap [...]
[Guest post from Jim Roumasset]
Sometimes crass analogies help to focus attention. Before dumping your girl/boyfriend, you might consider 1) whether s/he is better than nobody and 2) the prospects for improving the relationship. From Nordhaus and others, an ideal cap and trade system is better than nothing, but many cap and trade [...]Krugman makes the anti-Hansen case and I agree with no quibble (you can find the same points here and here). Here is the conclusion:
Things like this often happen when economists deal with physical scientists; the hard-science guys tend to assume that we’re witch doctors with nothing to [...]
Because cap and trade is enforced through the selling and trading of permits, it actually perpetuates the pollution it is supposed to eliminate. If every polluter’s emissions fell below the incrementally lowered cap, then the price of pollution credits would collapse and the economic rationale to keep reducing pollution would [...]
I agree with this from today's Krugman:
...cutting greenhouse gas emissions is affordable as well as essential. Serious studies say that we can achieve sharp reductions in emissions with only a small impact on the economy’s growth.
However:
Action on climate, if it happens, will take the form of “cap and trade”: businesses won’t be [...]
From Kentucky Green.com:
More than 90 percent of the electricity used in Kentucky and Indiana comes from burning coal. Kentucky is the third-largest coal-producing state, while Indiana ranks eighth.
President Barack Obama has said he will propose in Copenhagen that the U.S. aim to reduce emissions by 2020 to 17 percent below 2005 levels.
Obama [...]
Copenhagen begins: The two-week climate-change summit kicks off with the goal of salvaging some sort of international agreement to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. The stakes are high, says a Guardian editorial: “Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of [...]
From Greg Mankiw's Blog:
Club Member Ted Gayer makes five points:
1. Either a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade program will result in substantially lower economic costs than command-and-control regulations that mandate technologies, fuels, or energy efficiency standards.
2. Given the uncertainty of the future costs of climate policy, a carbon tax is more [...]
UPDATE: Congratulations Old Mill Patriots! 2009 Maryland Class 4A High School Football State Champions.
Place: M&T Bank Stadium (Home of the Baltimore Ravens)
Time: 7:30 PM
Event: Maryland Division 4A State Football Championship: Old Mill Senior High School vs. Wise High School
Why: I'm a 1987 graduate [...]
From the WSJ Micro Weekly Review e-mail:
An Economist's Invisible HandOver the past two weeks, our Economics - The Basics section has expanded greatly to include more Econ 101-level information. Is there anything you would like to see added?
Here are my two suggestions:
What are the various subfields of economics? I'd add environmental economics. It [...]Introductory economics students are taught that went price falls below average variable cost competitive business firms exit the industry. In this case, production costs have risen so that p < AVC (Tough season ...):
When Hurricane Ike slammed into Galveston on Sept. 13 last year, the storm buried nearly [...]
From the NYTimes Comes a great example of climate change issues in developing countries (Tree Harvester Offers to Save Indonesian Forests). First, we get the formulaic two paragraphs describing the environmental problem:
From the air, the Kampar Peninsula in Indonesia stretches for mile after mile in dense scrub and trees. [...]An attempt to save on heating costs has gone spectacularly wrong for five central Ohio suburbs. Natural-gas users in a consortium formed by Bexley, Dublin, Gahanna, Grandview Heights and Upper Arlington will be paying more than twice as much this month [...]
Cause: New energy efficiency requirements for power companies
Effect 1:
Consumers went crazy in October when they learned what their power company, Akron-based FirstEnergy, planned to distribute energy-efficient light bulbs. The company proposed automatically mailing the bulbs to every customer, then tacking a surcharge that [...]
Titled "The costs (and benefits) of climate change policy -- without all the hoopla" begins list this:
If you are tired of all of the nonsense about the recent climate nonsense (SuperFreakonomics, Climategate) and want to read something reasonable about climate change economics, try the latest [...]
Sometimes the only way to show how bad a policy is, is to have the market show you (from the NYTimes):
Two years ago, Congress ordered the nation’s gasoline refiners to do something that is turning out to be mathematically impossible.
To please the farm lobby and to help wean the [...]
An email from the Clementine people in response to an email about "seedless Clementine oranges":
Thanks for letting us know about your experience with our oranges. We’re sorry to hear about your disappointment and appreciate the concern you shared about your child’s experience with the fruit. I’m sure it [...]
For the second year in a row, Appalachian State University will open the NCAA Division I Football Championship at home versus South Carolina State. This [...]
Some holiday statistics and economics from the WSJ Numbers Guy:
My print column this week considers oft-reported claims that Thanksgiving spurs the consumption of 46 million turkeys and the busiest travel period of the year. Both claims appear to be contradicted by government data.
Turkeys:
... But that [46 [...]
This weekend I attended the Southern Economic Association meetings for the 20th consecutive year. Once again, I was amazed at how rewarding a small regional economics conference can be. The papers were of high quality, the AERE sessions were well attended and my friends showed up.
Here is what [...]
From Econbrowser (Yes the future deficits are worrisome):
Paul Krugman ([1], [2], [3]) has been arguing vigorously that U.S. budget deficits are no cause for concern. I see things differently.
...
Is it possible that some time within the next five years, the U.S. Treasury will run an auction in which there [...]From the inbox:
Breaking News Alert
The New York TimesTechnologies to cut back carbon dioxide emissions from factories and vehicles that feed the global economy add costs to fuel, food and more, an option that appeals neither to industrial nations struggling with the global economic meltdown or developing nations trying to ramp up economic growth.
[...]One of the problems with energy consumption is that consumers often don't know exactly how much energy they are consuming at a given moment, or how much that consumption is costing. Typical consumers get a bill at the end of the month reporting total consumption and the total bill. But [...]
Students were occupying buildings Friday on several campuses of the University of California system in protest of a 32 percent tuition hike.
...
University officials said the $505 million to be raised by the tuition increases is needed to prevent even deeper cuts than those already made because of California's [...]
From the Columbus Dispatch:
Federal officials say the despised Asian carp may have breached an electronic barrier designed to prevent it from invading the Great Lakes and jeopardizing their $7 billion sport fishery.
Officials with the Army Corps of Engineer say Friday that DNA of the giant carp have been found [...]
As Tim previously announced, you'll be able to find me in San Antonio this weekend. Here is the link to my conference schedule. I'll also be attending this great looking session.
I'll be presenting our (Tim, Rob, Kurt and John) recreation demand models [...]
John's headed to the Southern Economic Association meetings in San Antonio this weekend. Unfortunately I can't make it. At the risk of exposing her to John's typcial meeting antics, I'm sending one of my brilliant Ph.D. students, Carolina Castilla*, in my place. She'll be presenting some work we're doing on consumers' price [...]
First, congrats to Jay! Here is a bit from the journal announcement:
Jason Shogren has left an indelible impact on the profession of agricultural and applied economics. ...Prior to his appointment at his alma mater, he held positions at Appalachian State, Yale, and Iowa State Universities. ...
... he enjoys [...]
I'm heading to the SEA meetings tomorrow and am wondering where everyone is staying. Not at the conference hotel, it seems. Here is some background:
The [SEA] hotel is overcharging for each room to pay for the conference meeting rooms. When facing a high price, such as in a year [...]
I finished SuperFreakonomics the other night and give four-fifths of it a thumbs up (chapter 5 gets a thumbs down). My guess is that if a reader picked up SuperFreak first it would give the same positive jolt to utility that Freak gave when read first. I enjoyed [...]
Long quote, brief comment (from the Wilmington Star-News):
The question is no longer whether the seas are rising, just if human-induced factors are speeding up the natural process.
But for North Carolina’s coastal officials, that answer matters little. What does is that while the oceans rise, an average of 3.5 millimeters annually as [...]
From the comments section on this post:
Posts like this are why I don't recommend this blog--to anyone. Use your "Puerile Humor" tag less sparingly.
My reply:
Oscar,
I don't recommend this blog to anyone either! And thanks for your anonymous comment! Those are the ones I pay most attention to!
Anyway, [...]
CFC reductions are often hailed as an environmental policy success story. The reason CFC reduction policies have been so successful is Congress taxed the bejesus out of CFCs.
The Clean Air Act (Title VI) established caps on most CFC's as agreed upon under the Montreal Protocol, with a complete phase [...]
OK, I guess it's TypePad's Twitter.
[...]Testing the new quick compose feature on TypePad (I don't know what this is supposed to do).
' [...]
Peter King on John Gruden's time away from coaching:
I also really like how he's taken the year for some continuing education about football. We talked about the spread offense and how much he's learned about it from reaching out to college coaches. "I've really learned a lot from [Oregon coach] [...]
In the latest obstacle to proposed U.S. climate legislation, key lawmakers on Thursday urged Senate Democrats to change distribution plans for carbon permits to offer more protection for coal-dependent utilities.
Isn't the point of all of this to make coal dependent utilities uncomfortable? Read on...
The lawmakers said the [...]
Page 278 in Zerbe and Bellas (which, actually, I think is a good book):
As construction began on these plants, the cost of power began to rise, which in turn reduced demand.
A reasonable next sentence might be: The eventual result was that the region had lower electricity prices. Yet, the [...]
The WaPo review turned me on to Ezra Klein. My favorite post:
The Chamber of Commerce recently blasted out a fundraising e-mail to its member groups asking for $50,000 to hire a "respected economist" to study the health-care bills. Seems sensible enough. Knowledge is power, and all that. But then, as Michael Shear [...]
From the inbox:
Okay John,
I plead total ignorance (but not apathy), further backed up by a Google search resulting in nothing of value (well substance).
I enjoy Environmental Economics, one of the enlightening e mails that I get.
I also like your taste in music.
So the question of the day is ‘what does [...]
Top 10 Reasons to be hating on John List**:
As already mentioned earlier today: he dissed lab experiments. His vita: too many papers published in the top journals. His fawning rags-to-riches bio in SuperFreakonomics (more details below). If you love him so much why don't you marry him? His country club*** sport: [...]I was beginning to wonder if I was alone is questioning the drunk walking assertion in SuperFreakonomics. But the WaPo review nails it:
... the authors theorize that it is more dangerous for a tipsy person to walk any given distance than it is for that person to drive. [...]U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders on Sunday supported delaying a legally binding climate pact until 2010 or even later, but European negotiators said the move did not imply weaker action...
French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said it was clear the main obstacle was the United States' [...]
So I have a proposal--I'll call it a fuel efficiency payment. Here's how it works: All cars [...]
This week I was "incentivized" (gosh, how I hate that word) to estimate a recreation demand model for South Atlantic (NC - FL) marine recreational fishing using the MRFSS and the standard NMFS nested logit demand model. Using almost 4000 angler trips there are six mode/species alternatives. In [...]
Lord Smith of Finsbury believes that implementing individual carbon allowances for every person will be the most effective way of meeting the targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
It would involve people being issued with a unique number which they would [...]
Is the widening of US HWY 421 in Boone efficient (i.e., a potential Pareto improvement)? Use these resources to answer the question below:
Estimated Cost: Construction $16.2 million Length: 1.1 miles About 45,000 vehicles use the road there daily Watauga County Quickfacts Value of time (use Table 1: PDF): [...]Good think I know that Prof. Miller is kidding around:
Prof. Whitehead notes a post that says that the claim that meat production generates 51% of greenhouse gas emissions is based on "addled" conclusions.
By the way, why does nobody mention beer (or any adult beverage, for that matter) along with greenhouse gasses? There's a [...]
Having never had one of my own papers rejected*, I'm not sure I understand the premise behind this new journal, but Env-Econ reader Alan Dove thinks some of my "collegaues could benefit from this."
Rejecta Mathematica is an open access, online journal that publishes only papers that have been rejected from [...]
From the Terrapass blog:
Conventional wisdom has it that meat production is responsible for about 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions — a shocking enough figure as it is. But lately a much higher number has been circulating, with some claiming that meat is responsible for an astonishing 51% of worldwide emissions.
Some skepticism [...]
Chapter 2 of SuperFreakonomics answers the question of why suicide bombers should buy life insurance. As part of this discussion the authors discuss the issue of ranking physicians. One way is to assess the life expectancy of their patients -- the better the doctor the longer their patients live. [...]
The CBO just released cost estimate for the Devil's Staircase Wilderness Act (PDF) provides an opportunity for an economics exam question:
H.R. 2888 would designate about 29,650 acres of federal land in Oregon as the Devil’s Staircase Wilderness. The bill also would designate about 15 miles of creeks in [...]
The scene: An early autumnal morning in a household in suburban Columbus. I approach the breakfast table as my family readies themselves for school.
Me--pointing at an 8-point buck walking through our suburban yard, passing within 10 feet of the window*: "Hey, look!"
My wife,two of our three kids--the youngest is still knocked out [...]
As if my wicked slice doesn't cause me enough stress, now I have this to worry about when I golf (from CNN):
Research teams at the Danish Golf Union have discovered it takes between 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to decompose naturally. A startling fact when it is also [...]
Last night, my kids saw the trailer for the apocalyptic movie 2012, a foretelling of the end of time based on interpretation of the Mayan calendar. They freaked out a bit--especially after I told them it is true* and I know that because the predictions are based on the Haab calendar. I even had [...]
From the economics angle the biggest problem with the SuperFreakonomics climate change chapter is the lack of economics. That sounds odd, doesn't it?. As I've said before I have no idea if the 18 mile volcano tubes are ridiculous or not, but it should be considered a complement to reducing [...]
I just finished presenting Tim's (and Rob's and Kurt's) paper in our Department Seminar Series:
Appalachian State UniversityAll seminars are in Raley 3010 at 2:00 P.M. unless otherwise indicated.
...
November 6, John Whitehead, "Angler Heterogeneity and the Species-Specific Demand for Marine Recreational Fishing"
They were wowed [...]
The title comes from a message from David Zetland (at aguanomics) who, besides asking questions with obvious answers, thinks posts about cow farts cheapen his blog. To that I say, nothing can cheapen our blog--er, or something like [...]
From the inbox:
Thank you for your interest in the [EPA Science Advisory Board] Environmental Economics Advisory Committee. This is to let you know that you were not selected. We were privileged to have many qualified candidates such as yourself from which to fill just 4 openings on this committee.
Well at [...]
The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday approved a Democratic climate change bill that would require industry to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.
With Republicans boycotting the committee's work saying more analysis of the legislation [...]
From an Ask the Expert column I wrote for onCampus: The Ohio State University faculty staff information hub (aka on-line newsletter):
What are the basics of the recent energy policy proposals in Congress?
There are two energy bills moving through Congress right now: The American Clean Energy and Security Act in the [...]
In the Review of Mechanism Design (page 84):
A largely independent development of stated preference methods, called contingent valuation (CV) and focused on eliciting preferences for public goods, occurred in resource economics (Davis 1963; Randall et al. 1974). The method has been promoted and used somewhat uncritically as a tool [...]
From the inbox comes evidence that "elite economic experts" (smacks of elitism) consider global warming a problem and think incentives might matter:
Most expert economists agree: reducing our greenhouse gas emissions can help avoid a major economic malfunction. Those are the findings of a survey conducted by the Institute for Policy [...]
Scientists spent eight years tracking the movements of 179 great white sharks and discovered that these predators have very predictable migration patterns between Hawaii and the North American coast. Dots below show approximate locations where 68 sharks tagged with satellite sensors were recorded at various [...]
Sen was born on this day in 1933. I was born on this day in 1969.
Sen has a Nobel Prize.
I don't.
[...]I'm typing up my notes for the contingent valuation method (CVM) lecture in the benefit-cost analysis course and it has made me ready to deal with something that's been bugging me for awhile*. I'm thinking it is time to drop the "valuation" part of contingent valuation and replace [...]
Here's the beginning and end of a column I submitted at 11:30 today for an Ask the Expert segment in our campus newsletter:
The American Clean Energy and Security Act in the House of Representatives (nicknamed ACES and cosponsored by Waxman-Markey) and the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act in the [...]
We're "reputable" economists (The simple math of green jobs):
From time to time we have reported on green job projections. Many reputable economists question these studies, among them Tim Haab and John Whitehead at The Environmental Economics Blog ...
From now on the acronym for "The Environmental Economics Blog" is TEEB (pronounced TEEB, [...]
I admit that I’m torn in my opinion about SuperFreakonomics. I was predisposed to fully embrace it. The first book, Freakonomics, did great things for the economics profession. It made economics interesting and readable. It broadened the scope [...]
From the inbox:
Greetings from Amazon.com. You saved $1.69 with Amazon.com's Pre-order Price Guarantee! The price of the item(s) decreased after you ordered them, and we gave you the lowest price.
The following title(s) decreased in price:
SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
[...]
I continue to cringe at the SuperFreakonomics reviews, but I can't stop reading and reposting them. Is that admission a cry for help?
David Roberts at Grist:
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner are the latest to do it, in their new book Superfreakonomics. Their chapter on [...]
An open letter to Steve Levitt at the RealClimate blog:
... if it has come to pass that we can’t expect the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor (and Clark Medalist to boot) at a top-rated department of a respected university to think clearly and honestly with numbers, we are indeed in a [...]The largest stimulus program in the nation's history has created or saved at least 650,000 jobs, according to a report released by the Obama administration on Friday.
Based on approximately $150 billion in spending from the $787 billion recovery package, the tally is the first broad, concrete look at [...]
From the inbox:
Today the Washington Post had an article on the tension at Virgina Tech between those who want to tailgate for Thursday night games and, um, academics. My favorite quote: ' having a prominent football team "does great things for the university, much more so than somebody discovering [...]
If you disagree with the thrust of the SuperFreakonomics climate change chapter, are you a global warming fanatic? Here is the Freakonomics blog post in my Google Reader:
[Steve Levitt] wondered if he was in for a Jim Cramer-type beatdown. But it turns out that Jon Stewart doesn't appreciate the global-warming [...]From the RESECON listserv:
RESECON readers are invited to a Union of Concerned Scientists' event, "Taking Action on Climate Change: An Economists' Weekend," in Chicago, IL. The event will start with dinner on Friday, November 13, and continue until 4PM on Sunday, November 15, 2009. The weekend is open to PhD [...]
Climate change presents a global crisis, but "can also provide an economic opportunity of vast proportions," Dan Reicher, director of climate change initiatives at Google told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Besides creating new jobs in solar, wind and geothermal power, he said national regulation of [...]
From the inbox:
Output of goods and services grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate, faster than economists expected, according to preliminary figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Even so, it will be months before job-seekers begin to feel the benefits.
Parts of the stimulus arrived around the time that growth [...]
Got in at midnight and will be in a hotel conference room (undisclosed location) from 9 to 4 for an SSC meeting:
The purpose of this joint meeting of the SSC and the SSC Selection Committee is to hold an open discussion on SSC responsibilities, Council needs and expectations, and [...]
I'm engrossed by SuperFreakonomics (up to page 21). It is a page turner* but I can't help wonder if it is all quite right. For example, at this point in the book, the drunk walking result is an assertion based on a dubious assumption:
If we assume that [...]
