Environmental Economics

Waterworld

Here's a link to a fun little sea level rise tool to waste some time at work, er, for you doomsday lovers out there, er, for you climate change deniers, er, for you climate change alarmists, er, for you.

No matter the scenario...I sure hope those Army Corp engineers knew what they were doing in New Orleans.

A forensic economics question

What caused our massive spike in visits on October 22, 2012?

Surely, not this 10/22 post: http://www.env-econ.net/2012/10/where-have-i-been-for-the-last-5-months.html? Is Tim's family that large?

Publication of Enduring Quality?

PhD advisee and now Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin Whitewater, Matt Winden, sent me this picture from his explorations at the Southern Economics Association Meetings (in New Orleans) book displays.

A few observations (in case you can't quite see if from the high quality cameraphone picture Matt sent--Matt, clean the lens every once in a while would you?--that's my book with Ted McConnell on teh Econometrics of Nonmarket valuation):

1. Matt was wandering around the book displays at the SEA Meetings.  Interpretation:  Matt couldn't find anyone to talk to so he wandered aimlessly through the book displays trying to look like he was interested.  Matt, you did know that Bourbon Street was only a hop, skip and drunken jump away from the hotel, right?  Step outside...there's a world to be explored.
2. The book was originally published in 2002.  I find it interesting that it is still prominantly displayed at the Elgar display.  Someone should really nominate this for some publication of enduring quality awards, right? Anyone? Bueller?
3. I really don't care about awards (but would still accept if nominated), the fact that it is so prominantly displayed is proof that the market has judged the book of high quality.  No, really.
4. We should really think about getting to work on that second edition.  We have said that for the last 5 years.
5. Thanks Matt for taking your own copy of the book (which I made you buy) and putting it up front on the display like I asked.

My favorite textbook

From Mankiw's favorite textbook's study guide (chapter 6):

This was pointed out to me about one hour in front of the third exam. In order to mitigate any problems I wrote this on the board.

Test day disaster mitigation

Mankiw is the source of the disaster.

Follow-up to "California’s First Greenhouse Gas Auction"

Kate Cell in the comments:

Union of Concerned Scientist has a climate economist in California, Jasmin Ansar. She recently posted on this subject - http://blog.ucsusa.org/pricing-carbon-pollution-a-historic-day-in-california/. I expect she'll have some interesting news today when the auction results are released. ...

Next day:

Jasmin sent these headlines from the auction results yesterday:

Price $10.09. All of 2013 allowances sold, about 14% of 2015 allowances sold. The floor price was $10.

When asked, "Were you expecting a higher percentage of the second tranche to sell?" Jasmin responded "Yes - I think the 2015 vintage are going for a 'song' and I am somewhat surprised so few sold. I guess the uncertainty overwhelms the financial return of a real 5% return (the floor price of $10 goes up every year by inflation plus 5%)."

I survived NOLA

I'm back from attending the Southern Economic Association meetings in New Orleans, LA. I got back home Sunday night at 10:30 and was in the office around 8 on Monday morning. Thank goodness I'm administering exams this week as my head and nerves are shot. Here is the debriefing:

• I arrived in NOLA after dinner time on Thursday night. I still managed to eat some spicy shrimp, a half dozen broiled oysters and a bowl of gumbo with Abita Amber to wash it down.
• Thursday was filled with 4 sessions. As I recall, I drew random numbers for ordering the AERE sessions for submission to the SEA. The SEA proceeded to place the sessions associated with my research agenda all on the first day. No complaints, but it made for a long day.
  • The 8 am session was good with about 25+ attendees.
  • I missed the 10 am session to discuss a paper in a teaching session. Buy me a beer sometime and I'll tell you about the odd reception one of my comments received.
  • I presented one of my papers in the 1 pm stated preference session (lunch involved finishing up my presentation). There were, again, 25+ attendees and I received a large number of questions and comments that will help focus my paper on the relevant issues. I continue to be amazed at the usefulness of AERE sessions at the SEA meetings.
  • The 2 pm was another stated preference session with 25+ attendees. Many of these had attended all four AERE sessions that day. The number of useful comments was lower than the previous sessions as exhaustion set in.
• Friday night was the UK cocktail party with a moving tribute to Bill Stober (note: I always called him Dr. Stober). It was also the annual dinner with my dissertation advisor (and our spouses). We ate at the Red Fish Grill where I had the grilled grouper with BBQ oyster appetizer (NOLA pale ale). The waiter was 90% sure it was black grouper. It was a great time. 
• With only about 45 minutes of downtime on Friday, I missed the 8 am session on Saturday (and ate a big breakfast - "free" since the first room we went to on Thursday had not been cleaned) but put my head down the rest of the day:
  • At 10 am I participated on a teaching panel and discussed my experiences with community based research in the benefit-cost analysis course. I was genuinely surprised to get a few interested questions. Apparently, other schools are putting the pressure on people to do this sort of thing. My experience has been good but it is like having kids: high benefits, high costs, positive net benefits but the benefit-cost ratio won't blow anyone away.
  • I skipped lunch to exercise (after a long hallway conversation about Hausman's JEP paper). 
  • I attended a non-AERE environmental session at 2 pm since the papers more closely aligned with my research interests. The presentations were good ... but I don't understand why one would choose to submit to a regular SEA session instead of one that is AERE sponsored. Even if you are not an AERE member, the submission fee is waived so AERE membership is subsidized (membership is a requirement for participation in AERE sessions). Wouldn't you be willing to pay $42 for all of the benefits of AERE membership, plus great comments on your paper from interested audience members (and not disinterested discussants) and an overall sunnier mood in an AERE session?
  • At 4 pm I attended the AERE session and heard two great papers. Two other papers had dropped out for various reasons, an epidemic at this year's meeting according to the SEA people.
  • I heard that the AERE sessions that I missed were all good. Attendance was in the 15-20 range. This still represents an AERE premium over regular SEA sessions (both of the ones I attended had less than 10 in attendance).
• Immediately after the close of the last session was the AERE happy hour in the Sheraton lobby bar (I had Abita Amber). We had great attendance. It was cool to see all of the new assistant professors getting to know each other (I regret that I wasn't able to get in on that conversation) and several groups formed for dinner. I had dinner (fried flounder and oysters at K-Paul's) that involved three couples celebrating three economists' last SEA meeting before they turn 50. I had a Makers Mark (rocks) in celebration of the life of  Bill Stober (note: Dr. Stober is the source of my preferred nickname, "lonewolf"; I think this was the password to the copy machine at UK in the late 80s, or something like that).
• Sunday morning? Yikes, I'm exhausted and skip the 8 am session in order to eat pancakes in the room and finish off my last presentation. The session was one of those oddball, miscellaneous applied micro sessions. Nevertheless, three presenters and three discussants showed up and tried to do an admirable job. The audience consisted of co-authors and a stray economist or two. The total number in the room reached 9 at one point. 
• In order to get back to Boone before midnight I had a 4:20 flight and had to miss the last two sessions of the today. On the way out of the hotel it seemed like this was very common. I wandered the halls around 1 pm and it seemed like a ghost town. Sorry to the poor saps in those sessions. There must be a better way to end a conference (but don't ask me for any ideas). 

"The Nuts and Bolts of California’s First Greenhouse Gas Auction"

EDF:

Following today’s California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) board meeting, the next major milestone in California’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is on November 14^th, when California will hold the first auction of carbon allowances for the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) cap-and-trade program. EDF has closely followed the steps CARB has taken to prepare, including participating in their successful “practice auction” this past August.  In order to shed some light on the nuts and bolts of how these auctions will work and the process going forward, we’ve put together an Auction FAQ factsheet to help answer some basic questions.

Perhaps the worst associate-editor-trying-to-find-a-referee experience yet

Perhaps.

From the inbox:

>
> Could you please provide me an update regarding the status of our
> manuscript submitted to JEMA on July 19th?
>

My reply:

I finally found a second referee on November 6. This was after invited [sic] 13 other individuals to referee your paper. 7 of these declined the invitation for various reasons and 6 never bothered to respond to the invitation after a week and were uninvited.

I hope to have a decision for you before the end of the year.

 

Don't ever let your wife meet your girlfriend

As you know, I'm a big sports fan.  I like sports, my wife likes sports, I encourage my kids to play and follow sports, sports are a nice diversion from thinking about things that hurt my head all day long, like the environment and economics and administrative stuff.  As you also know, I grew up in Maryland, lived there for 25 years and went to the University of Maryland for graduate school.  In my 43 years, Maryland sports and the Atlantic Coast Conference have been synonymous.  When I moved to Ohio, and started working at Ohio State in 2000, I felt a little icky starting to follow Ohio State sports.  But I have grown to like Buckeye sports as much as I like Terrapin sports, my kids are Buckeye fans--and not Terp fans.  And since they are local--and they pay me--it is easier to follow Buckeye sports.  I have justified my sports bigamy on the grounds that Ohio State is a Big 10 (i.e. 11, 12,...) conference school so my two schools will rarely meet (and so far so good) and I won't have to make a choice.

Uh oh:

The University System of Maryland's Board of Regents will meet at 9 a.m. Monday to vote whether to accept an invitation to join the Big Ten Conference, a source told ESPN.

...

If Maryland goes from the ACC to the Big Ten, Rutgers of the Big East will then follow suit, a source said. The Rutgers announcement could be as early as Tuesday, sources said. The addition of Maryland and Rutgers would give the Big Ten 14 members as the league gears toward negotiations on a new media rights deal when its first-tier rights expire in 2017.