On ad hominem attacks
26 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: activists, climate alarmism, conjecture and refutation, green rent seeking, philosophy of science, precautionary principle
The smart, green economy, not – electric cars version
20 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, rentseeking Tags: Big Green, Bjørn Lomborg, electric cars, green rent seeking
Who gains from global warming alarmism?
18 Feb 2015 2 Comments
in environmental economics, global warming, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: activists, climate alarmism, global warming, green rent seeking
Saving Civilization: 2009 vs 2015
27 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: activists, climate ala, climate alarmism, do gooders, expressive voting, green rent seeking, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
An absolutely excellent collection of climate alarmist statements by hacks whose jobs depended on fermenting confusion and moral panic
Five years ago, we were told that the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit was the last chance to save civilization. As the 2015 Paris summit approaches, the same sort of fear mongering is ramping up.
Earlier this week, a climate declaration published as a full-page ad in the international edition of New York Times tried to frighten us. It told us that:
the UN Climate Summit in Paris in December 2015 may be the last chance to agree a treaty capable of saving civilization; [bold added]
The declaration insisted that global warming may “cause the very fabric of civilization to crash.” It said charitable foundations should therefore divert resources away from other projects – presumably building hospitals and schools, preventing blindness and malaria, ensuring basic sanitation – in order to “save civilization” from the climate scourge.
Problem is, we’ve heard this before. Not so very long ago, the British Prime…
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The relationship between housing prices and the Wharton Land Use Index
24 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in rentseeking, urban economics Tags: Edward Gleaser, green rent seeking, land supply, land use regulation, zoning
Note: the Wharton Land Use Index measures the restrictiveness of a metropolitan area’s land use regulations.
Hsieh and Moretti on Allocations across Cities
23 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, geography, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: agglomeration, green rent seeking, land supply, zoning
the implied cost of housing restrictions across the whole U.S., and Chang and Enrico find that aggregate output is lower by about 10-14% because of them.
Last post on the NBER growth session. Chang-Tai Hsieh (Chicago) and Enrico Moretti (Berkeley) presented a paper on wage dispersion across cities in the U.S. Wage dispersion (New Yorkers earn more than people in Cleveland) either represents compensation for living costs (housing in New York is more expensive than in Cleveland), a real difference in productivity (New Yorkers are more productive than Clevelanders), or some combination of the two.
What Chang and Enrico find is that the increase in wage dispersion across cities in the U.S. over the last thirty-ish years is due almost entirely to rising house prices in six cities: NY, DC, Boston, San Fran, San Jose, and Seattle. Wages have gone up rapidly in those cities, but that is basically just compensating their citizens for the higher costs of living.
Now, given the costs of living, the allocation of population across cities in the U.S. is…
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Suburban rent seeking and green rent seeking are a dangerous brew for housing affordability
13 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
Wind welfare – time for this infant industry to grow up
22 Dec 2014 1 Comment
in environmental economics, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: corporate welfare, green rent seeking, infant industry argument, wind welfare
Warren Buffett – green rent seeker extraordinaire
15 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, rentseeking Tags: corporate welfare, green rent seeking, Warren Buffett, wind welfare
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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