Environmental Economics

An article fat with economic examples

For anyone looking for an article that can be used to discuss the basic workings of supply and demand, here's a candidate. 

After two years of secret taste tests, KFC said Monday it would stop frying chicken in artery-clogging trans fats, but New York City restaurants being urged to do the same say it's not so easy.

KFC's announcement, which won praise from consumer advocates, came an hour ahead of a public hearing on a New York health department proposal to ban the unhealthy fats in the nation's restaurant capital.

Industry leaders dished up a plateful of reasons why such a plan shouldn't be adopted.

Some benefits and costs from the UK climate change report

Here are the economic highlights from the WSJ's article on the UK climate change report:

Introducing the report, Prime Minister Tony Blair said unabated climate change would eventually cost the world the equivalent of between 5% and 20% of global gross domestic product each year. ... Report author Sir Nicholas Stern, a senior government economist, said that acting now to cut greenhouse gas emissions would cost about 1% of global GDP each year. "That is manageable," he said. "We can grow and be green." ... Sir Nicholas said the world must shift to a "low-carbon global economy" through measures including taxation, regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions and carbon trading. ... The British government is considering new "green taxes" on cheap airline flights, fuel and high-emission vehicles.

Mark Thoma on noneconomist critiques of neoclassical economics

From the Economist's View:

I don't mind the criticism, it's good for us and there are truths in what is said. But I always resent the arrogance of scientists from other fields thinking they can mosey on over to economics for a few minutes, diagnose our ills, and solve all our problems. I'd suggest they solve the problems in their own discipline first, or show a bit more humility when giving advice to others, especially when, as above, they are clearly unaware of vast swaths of literature such as the published work on corruption. And along those lines, and for the record, we're well aware of and have models for the list of things he mentions in his "abundantly clear" theory of market fluctuations. If he actually tried to build these models rather than simply casting aspersions at the existing paradigm, he'd find it isn't as clear as he thinks.

The same can be said about some noneconomist critics of neoclassical environmental economics, in my opinion.

My mind is in the toilet...

I spent the day with my mind in the toilet--literally, my toilet was leaking and it took me all day and 5 trips to the local hardware store, to figure out what is wrong.  Says something about my opportunity cost of time.  Anyway, a couple of global warming stories in the news:

Number one: 

Colorado State University's William Gray, one of the nation's preeminent hurricane forecasters, called noted Boulder climate researcher Kevin Trenberth an opportunist and a Svengali who "sold his soul to the devil to get (global warming) research funding."

Trenberth countered that Gray is not a credible scientist.

Number two:

“We want to know whether tax increases on activities which pollute will be offset by tax cuts on activities which don’t. Our aim is not to increase the tax burden on hard-working families.”

Enjoy.  I have to go install my new toilet.

An increase in emissions of greenhouse gases

From the WSJ's afternoon report:

A U.N. report registered a 2.4% rise in emissions of greenhouse gases by 41 industrialized nations between 2000 and 2004, despite efforts under the Kyoto Protocol to cap them and stave off global warming. Of the 41 industrialized nations, 34 increased emissions between 2000 and 2004, the U.N. reported. In the U.S., source of two-fifths of the industrialized world's greenhouse gases, emissions grew by 1.3% in that period, and by almost 16% between 1990 and 2004. Among countries bound by Kyoto, Germany's emissions dropped 17% between 1990 and 2004, Britain's by 14% and France's by almost 1 percent, the U.N. reported. But Kyoto signatories such as Japan, Italy and Spain have registered emissions increases since 1990. The U.N. findings come as a U.K. government report said unchecked global warming will devastate the world economy on the scale of the world wars and the Great Depression.

British climate change report is released

British Government Report Calls for Broad Effort on Climate Issues:

A report commissioned by the British government and scheduled for release Monday calls for  substantial international cooperation to combat global warming and doubling public spending on research into low-carbon technologies.

Is there an age limit at Facebook?

From Greg Mankiw's Blog:

Kevin Burke, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, has opened a facebook arm of the Pigou Club. The group now has 73 members. Anyone registered in facebook is free to join. One member posted a link to the above graphic from Foreign Policy. For previous Pigou Club posts, click here and here.

The Pigou Club is up to 140 members, including meself (Martin Feldstein has been invited but hasn't joined). I enjoyed setting up my profile, but couldn't find anywhere cromulent to list my nickname: lonewolf (and yes, I gave my correct birthdate).

Here is my Facebook badge:

A message from the founder and directer of DriveNeutral

Hi everybody. This is Jason Smith, founder and director of DriveNeutral, here. I just want to chime in quickly on a couple of points.

A review of environmental economics blogs

I found this via Technorati, a review of a couple of environmental economics blogs:

People with awful jobs often have great senses of humor. Try hanging out with some longtime jail guards or social workers and getting them talking. They’ve seen it all, man, and they just have to laugh about it. If you’re at a conference of psychiatrists, crash the “forensics” table: the docs that deal with really sick violent people all day. The probability is high you’ll have a blast — while over at the “therapists to the healthy and alienated” table, that p fast approaches zero.

That’s what I was thinking this week as I read through recent entries at two surprisingly entertaining sites about economics. ...

Environmental and Urban Economics is written by an economist interested in green issues. I don’t understand many of the references to economic theory here, but it’s clear there’s an admirable wit and informality at work. I like it. Environmental Economics covers the same territory, with less rambling and a bit more focus on the news of the day.

Um. No comment.

Crap, I can't help it: I don't understand many of Kahn's references to economic theory either.

Update: I didn't realize the first 2 paragraphs above applied to us until a re-read (i.e., I have nothing better to do). And check out some other reviews below ...

Mankiw's $1 gas tax increase

From the 10/20 WSJ (Raise the gas tax):

With the midterm election around the corner, here's a wacky idea you won't often hear from our elected leaders: We should raise the tax on gasoline. Not quickly, but substantially. I would like to see Congress increase the gas tax by $1 per gallon, phased in gradually by 10 cents per year over the next decade. Campaign consultants aren't fond of this kind of proposal, but policy wonks keep pushing for it.