Environmental Economics

Now this looks like a job for me; So everybody, just follow me; 'Cause we need a little controversy; 'Cause it feels so empty without me*

Since John called me out in public to start re-posting and then started while I was at an administrative retreat...well played John...I'm back!

When John and I started Env-Econ in 2005, our goal was to help bring economic thinking to environmental issues in a fun, casual way that is accessible to non-academic audiences. Over the years I think we accomplished a lot of what we set out to do, but things started to get a little stale (probably because John and I both took the leap into academic administration and lost touch with some of the advances in the field of environmental economics). But I'm pleased to say that my 13 year sentence term as department chair is coming to an end soon and I'm ready to start spouting a few smart things and a lot of stupid ones again. Only this time I'm going to be learning along with you all.

Some of what we say will probably be repetitive from Env-Econ 1.0. Some will be new. And hopefully all will be entertaining. If nothing else I get to start making fun of John again in public.

*

 

Env-econ: the reboot

Sometimes I forget the amount of content @johnwhitehead81 and I created at https://t.co/JbxmB6cByt for almost 15 years. Glad people are still finding it useful. Tempted to start posting again. https://t.co/WNvxWja9Dt

— Tim Haab (@tim_env_econ) January 8, 2023

For the 37th year in a row!

An endorsement (or two)

From the inbox:

I just read your article in REEP with the survey of environmental economists. I look forward to using it in my class next term – I usually start class off with a survey of the students, and it will be fun now to compare their answers to those of the profession.

Thanks for the article! ...

And I really need to remember to check your blog more often…  I always mean to do that, and then just somehow it gets away from me…  but that’s a great resource too!

Right now the article is free and at the top of the "most read" list here: https://academic.oup.com/reep. 

EnvEcon is the cream of the chaff...or something like that?

The Intelligent Economist (oxymoron?) lists the 100 best economics blogs for 2016:

If you’re looking for practical, insightful and educational economics blogs, you’ve come to the right place. Here are the 100 best economics blogs online, listed in no particular order. Today, as you know, there’s no shortage of high-quality economics blogs on the web. But we decided to separate the wheat from the chaff and give you the absolute cream of the crop. Whether you’re new to economics, or have an interest in a range of economics topics like econometrics and macroeconomics, or simply want to keep up with global economics, these economics blogs give you the rundown, insights and explanations you need to get a good understanding of economics.

Emphasis added to make sure you notice that theses are IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER--so we consider ourselves #1.

Here are the environmental blogs that found their way onto the list:

83. Environmental Economics:  Environmental Economics is a blog intended for a wide audience and approaches its arguments with an easy to understand writing style. The two authors, Tim Haab and John Whitehead are both Economics Professors.

87. An Economic View of the Environment: An Economic View of The Environment is a blog by Robert Stavins, who is a professor at Harvard University and is the Director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program. His posts paint a comprehensive view of global environmental issues from an economic standpoint.

95. Environmental and Urban Economics: This site by Matthew Kahn, a leading American educator in the field of environmental economics is self described as a blog that addresses environmental and urban issues from an environmental perspective. This is a great read for economists interested in the environment.

100. Aguanomics: David Zetland is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Leiden University College in Den Haag, the Netherland and the creator of Aguanomics. This is a blog dedicated to a discussion of the economic and political factors affecting the way we manage water.

Of course these are IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER (but I include the number rankings, just in case).

There are other blogs on the list that occasionally touch on environmental issues, but these are the four that seem to be dedicated to environmental and resource issues.

HT: Matt Kahn via Twitter

Happy 10 year anniversary to the environmental economics blog (sniff)!

Here is our first post 10 years ago today:

John Whitehead and Tim Haab are excited to announce the launch of ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS. A website and blog dedicated to accessible writings on environment and natural resource issues written by economists. ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS can be found at www.env-econ.net

On the site you will find:

• Opinion pieces
• Current event and news analysis
• Literature reviews for the lay reader
• Summaries of recent research findings
• Back of the envelope analyses
• Rules of thumb
• Case studies for teaching
• Simple data analyses
• Book reviews
• Research notes, comments, replies
• Etc.

All postings are accessible, non-technical writings by expert economists. The site will appeal to students and members of the public interested in what economists have to offer in the analysis of environmental issues. If you are interested in posting to the site please follow the instructions on the site.

The site will be continually evolving so check back often (it would even make a very nice default homepage). Pass the site along to anyone you think might benefit from reading economic views on environmental issues.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to send them to us at [email protected] or [email protected].

via www.env-econ.net

Ten years? We were just kids (John and Tim). According to Typepad here are our stats:

• 4,421,053 Lifetime Pageviews
• 1215.91 Pageviews/Day
• 9294 Total Posts
• 28,652 Total Comments

Here is a graph of our annual page views from StatCounter. As you can see, this blog peaked a long time ago. But at least the recession has not become a depression. 

I'm symbolically hoisting one tonight with my buddy Tim (who I've seen in person maybe twice in the last 10 years). 

"Is Blogging or Tweeting about Research Papers Worth It?"

Mark Thoma:

Via the Lindau blog:

The verdict: is blogging or tweeting about research papers worth it?, by Melissa Terras: Eager to find out what impact blogging and social media could have on the dissemination of her work, Melissa Terras took all of her academic research, including papers that have been available online for years, to the web and found that her audience responded with a huge leap in interest...

Just one quick note. This is what happened when one person started promoting her research through social media. If everyone does it, and there is much more competition for eyeballs, the results might differ.

via economistsview.typepad.com

We are a long way from "everyone" doing it (ahem), so my guess is that there are still gains to blogging about research. Take a look at this paper to see some empirical evidence: The impact of economics blogs (McKenzie and Ozler).

"Keep env-econ.net unaffected from Google Updates"

From the inbox (emphasis added):

My name is [redacted] and I am the SEO expert of a leading SEO service provider company. As per my analysis, your website is not performing well in the Google organic search. Also your traffic is poor from last couple of months due to some of the reasons.

Some of the aspects given below:

1. Due to poor Back links
2. Keywords are not in the first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing
3. Due to errors and issues present in website
4. Errors in the coding part of your website
5. Website content quality is not high standard.

Area of Improvement:

1. We will give you 1st page ranking on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
2. Improve your sales and brand value.
3. 100% satisfaction guarantee or your full money back.
4. Hummingbird recovers and secures your website from next Google updates.
5. Increase your traffic flow.
6. Target your local market to increase business.

Some comments on our areas of improvment:

1. When I google "environmental economics" it still comes up first. Is that still happening for others?
2. How could our sales be even better? And after the oil spill, our brand was so destroyed that not even a million dollar tourism campaign could improve it. 
3. Right on.
4. Huh?
5. Indeed
6. We have no local market (unless you count Pete Groothuis)

And would someone please help us with errors and content quality?

Surprise! Functional form matters for trend forecasting

Using data from almost 9 years of pageviews at this blog, I fit a trend line with an OLS regression model where the dependent variable is the 30 day moving average (the blue line) of page views as measured by Typepad (where x is the time period). Here are two contrasting 1000 day forecasts (the trend line beyond the blue). First, the R² maximizing cubic function (the linear model has an R² of near zero):

Second, here is the quadratic:

Which forecast would you choose? I'm hoping for the quadratic because the light is at the end of the tunnel. 

Take the Kristof challenge!

At the risk of declaring oneself a public "intellectual" (The Ticker):

Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times riled many scholars with a column in Sunday’s newspaper that laments what he perceives as the disappearance of intellectuals from the national stage.

Mr. Kristof writes that there are some exceptions to his assertion but adds that, “over all, there are, I think, fewer public intellectuals on American university campuses today than a generation ago.”

“A basic challenge is that Ph.D. programs have fostered a culture that glorifies arcane unintelligibility while disdaining impact and audience,” he argues. “This culture of exclusivity is then transmitted to the next generation through the publish-or-perish tenure process. Rebels are too often crushed or driven away.”

Many observers took to Twitter (see the hashtag #EngagedAcademics) and their blogs to fire back at Mr. Kristof. ...

Read the rest to see some of the outrage ... "hey, we have a blog!" "there are newspaper columns!" But I agree mostly with Kristof. Engaging the public with outreach economics (blogs, community talks) is something only an embarrassingly small fraction of economics professors wants to do*. I disagree when he points to PhD programs and the tenure process as being a large part of the problem. PhD programs don't create automotons who can only speak inbred research gibberish. They generally create articulate researchers who can also teach (I say that with the caveat that I don't know many people at the top progams, they may well be automotons). In terms of the tenure process, this might be old fashioned but an assistant professor should focus on building a vita before s/he turns more of their attention to outreach. The pre-tenure years are only a small chunk of the time one has in a career. The bigger problem is that there is little pecuniary incentive to engage in outreach as part of your job on campus. 

In our little corner of outreach we always had hopes that we might be able to attract many more bloggers. We've had a number of guest bloggers over the years but no one has really wanted to make this part of their life's work (for a counter example, see Zetland) or they have their own blog. It can't hurt to make the offer again. If you think you have something to say and might like to become a blogger without incurring all of the fixed costs, think about becoming a regular contributor to the Environmental Economics blog. Shoot me an email if you have any interest and we can set it up. One to two posts a week every other quarter (in GDP terms, not the academic calendar) and we'll be happy to add your name to the left hand column! And, obviously, the posts need not always be all that serious-minded. 

*Note: I know 125+ environmental and resource economists who are willing to write for a general audience.