Environmental Economics

Just because...

Turns out that decision may have been made quickly. Sources told Local 6 that former University of Florida head coach Urban Meyer has agreed in principle to become the next head coach of Ohio State University, and will be introduced in the coming days. ... [According to sources], Meyer has agreed to a seven-year, $40 million deal. On Monday, Meyer told the Gainesville Sun that he felt good enough mentally and physically to return to coaching, but there had been no interview with Ohio State. Sources told [WKMG] that Meyer will bring several current UF assistant coaches with him to Columbus, including D.J. Durkin, the Gators' linebackers coach, who will be the OSU defensive coordinate.

via www.fannation.com

Picture of the day: tiger trout

Photo Credit: An economist who attended the 2011 SEA Meetings

I forgot a few

Here is more debriefing in the accomodations category from the SEA meetings:

1. I like Lebanese food better than Ethiopian.
2. Paul Chambers and I were not the oldest alumni at the UK cocktail party (thanks to Rich Hill!), but we didn't know anybody there.
3. The UK cocktail party ran out of Sam Adams.
4. The Sierra Nevada mentioned in the first post was the pale ale (a fine beer, don't get me wrong), not the Torpedo (another fine beer).
5. Will Wheeler has seconded my comment about the grumpy bartender.
6. The coffee in the rooms was better than that served by the hotel in the meeting area.That's not usually the way it works.
7. I'll be a few months before 50 years old for the SEA meetings next year in NOLA. How appropriate. 
8. Something about the George Mason crowd drives them to wear their suit coats and ties and name tags all night long. It is wonderful that we live in a country where they have the liberty to do so, and I am at liberty to make fun :)
9. The sports economics sessions were in a converted older guest room, complete with toilet. With all that testosterone those guys really need more space.
10. I think I heard someone in the toilet while I gave my sports economics presentation.
11. Bruce Johnson and I agonized during the sports economics session while missing Centre College beating Hampden-Sydney in CC's first D3 playoff appearance. We play Mount Union next week [pdf]. OMG.
12. And yes, someone told me, "I love your blog, but who is that Tim guy?" I had forgotten about that!

More notes from the SEA meetings

Continuing the SEA debriefing, in the professional (or semi-pro, since it is the Southern meetings :) category:

1. I attended 4 sessions Saturday, 3 on Sunday and 2 on Monday. I'm exhausted today.
2. I'm always amazed at how good and relaxed the AERE sessions are. Could there be a better place to  present your research, make a minor error and not get hammered for it?
3. Every AERE presentation that I saw (8 out of 10) was well thought out and well delivered. Also, speakers were conscientous about keeping within time constraints.
4. The no discussant experiment was again a success (IMO). Instead of some poor SOB struggling to find something useful to say about a paper far outside their narrow research niche, audience Q&A led to useful comments for just about every presenter. Each session I attended went the duration.
5. For the first time two redheads presented in the same session. I promise you that will never happen again.
6. The AERE sessions were well attended, as usual, except during the 8 am time slot. By my count, attendance ranged from 13 to 27 (including speakers). I wonder if the world would end if everything got pushed back a half-hour? Begin the sessions at 8:30, lunch break at 12:30, etc.
7. The highlight of the conference was the top 10 tips for young (er, new) economists panel (I was the moderator). The mid-sized room was at capacity (n = 50?) and the new (and not so new) economists enjoyed presentations that were brutally honest, insightful and funny. Afterwards, and at the "informal AERE reception" (where they ran out of the "IPA" and Sam Adams), I received so much positive feedback that it made me a little embarrassed. I hope to post the presentations soon ...
8. AERE co-sponsored a climate change session with the USAEE. Due to unavoidable cancellations, it was short a presentation even after combination with another climate change session that was cancelled. Anyway, the presentations were good and the joint AERE/USAEE "luncheon" afterwards was fun. Thanks to Lynne Kiesling for organizing. 

 

Notes from the SEA meetings

I spent the weekend in Washington, DC at the SEA meetings. Here are some quick observations in the accomodations category:

1. The hotel was very nice and I enjoyed a "Presidential Suite" the first two nights (I had to move to a room for regular riff-raff on Sunday night). It was about 1200 square feet with two bedrooms, a massive living room/foyer and a dining room. I spent about 16 hours total there (12 hours sleeping).
2. The two hotel bars did not have a single IPA on the beer menu. When I asked the bartender if they had any he said "Sierra Nevada." 
3. The bar ran out of their only "IPA" and Sam Adams on Saturday night around 7:30. The bartender was very grumpy when he told me, as if I should be happy to spend $6 for a (gd) Miller Lite. 
4. Attendees (and/or their employers) pay for coffee, bagels and pastries through the registration fee and inflated hotel prices. It is a nice touch to be able to quickly grab a bagel and coffee before an 8 am session. I made it to the Saturday 8 am session with bagel in hand/mouth but Monday they ran out of food at about 7:50 and began cleaning up. I wasn't the only one who was at a loss. So, thanks guys. No really, thanks a whole heckuva lot.

 

If we make it 10 minutes each, the problem solves itself

Kristen Wiig's Global Warming Solution from Kristen Wiig

It turns out OK for Carlos

Source: FDA

While Carlos is doing fine, I didn't finish my 2nd SEA paper. Oh well, there are no discussants to disappoint and, at least, I finished the presentation. The sorry thing is it might be January before I can get around to finishing what will likely only take a few hours. 

At the risk of looking stupid (like that's ever stopped me), can someone help an educator out?

In class today, I was talking about tax systems and efficiency vs. equity, and regressive and progressive taxes, and fairness in taxation and the role of governments in markets...when someone in class said something to the effect, "This sounds like it has a lot to do with the Occupy Wall Street protests, can you explain what they want?"

Normally when students ask questions, I push them to think about the problem until they come across the answer (that I already know) on their own.  Unfortunately, in this case, I just looked befuddled.  I didn't know how to start the conversation because I didn't know which path would lead toward the end. 

I've tried reading, I've tried Facebook, I've tried Google, and I still can't seem to formulate a reasonable answer to the question.

And, no, for once I am not being facetious or snarky.  I want to help students think about all sides of an issue from an economic perspective.  I just don't know where to start on this one.

Any help?

Stunningly ignorant (and he's a professor)

Part of the Occupy Wall Street movement is planning to announce on Monday a campaign to encourage people repaying student loans to stop doing so. The idea is that people will pledge to stop repaying their loans when 1 million people agree to do so. The hope is that such a volume of non-repayment would make it difficult to punish those who opt to stop paying. The repayments could continue, however, if certain conditions are met. Those conditions include making public higher education free to students. The campaign was described to Inside Higher Ed by Andrew Ross, a prominent humanities scholar at New York University, who has been involved with the efforts to start the drive.

via www.insidehighered.com

Let's have some fun with numbers. The BLS reports that in 2010, of all high school graduates in 2010, 68.1 percent were enrolled in college by October 2010. That's about 2.2 million students. I can't find a quick estimate of the numbers right now, but let's be conservative (stupid?) and make the math work easy by assuming the average cost of higher education for a student is $10,000 per year. Let's also be conservative (stupider?)and assume that the demand for higher education is perfectly inelastic so that dropping the tuition to $0 per student will result in no net increase in enrollments at institutes of higher education. One more conservative (stupid?) assumption, let's assume that on average college takes only 4 years to complete.

Given all of our conservative assumptions, we only need to find $40,000 x 2,200,000 people, or $8.8e^10, or for those not versed in scientific notation (sorry, that's how my 20 year old solar calculator spit the number out), $88 billion per year.

Assuming no additional students go to college, when tuition is free.

And all 2.2 million students graduate in 4 years.

And the cost of education is only $10,000 per year.

Suppose every parent who chooses to have a child saves $3 per day for that child's college education. At 5% interest, that parent would have over $32,000 saved by the time the kid graduates from high school.

Just sayin'.

But will the planet notice?

What will Gernot say about this one?

Kristen Wiig's Global Warming Solution from Kristen Wiig