Stand-Up Economist

Economics

What is (and isn't) funny about economics

• Thoughts on Roger Pielke Jr.

  Posted 7/29/10

  Just saw a Washington Policy Center talk by Roger Pielke Jr. Some thoughts:

  I think he had two main points, the first being that policymakers can’t decide what to do about climate change on the basis of climate science alone. This is an excellent point, but: No duh.
  His second main point was that reducing carbon emissions [...]

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• Solow’s “computer age” quote: a definitive citation

  Posted 7/14/10

  You’re not going to think this is interesting unless you’re a stickler for details, but after being unable to track it down on the web I’ve finally definitively sourced this famous quote from Robert Solow:
  You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.
  The source is Robert Solow, “We’d better watch out”, New [...]

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• Ten observations about conservatives and climate change

  Posted 7/01/10

  1. Conservatives are definitely not going away in the short-term—they are likely to pick up seats this coming November—and they are almost certainly not going away in the long-term either.
  2. Right now most conservatives don’t much care about climate change, but some of them do care. These include local folks like Todd Myers and national [...]

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• Time to explore new directions for U.S. climate policy

  Posted 6/13/10

  The 2nd half of 2010 may open a window of opportunity for carbon taxes, and the West Coast is in perfect position to play a leading role. Details in the rest of the post and/or in this memo on carbon pricing in Washington State that I worked on with Sightline Institute. [More...]

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• Krugman on climate change

  Posted 4/07/10

  Paul Krugman has a climate change article coming out in the NYT magazine this weekend. Mostly I think this is an excellent summary, but I do have a few comments. In reverse order through the article:
  So what I end up with is basically Martin Weitzman’s argument: it’s the nonnegligible probability of utter disaster that should [...]

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• 

  A response to Bryan Caplan

  Posted 1/11/10

  Bryan Caplan of George Mason University has written a thoughtful review of my Cartoon Introduction to Economics, so I want to offer a response, starting (for no really good reason) at the bottom of his review and proceeding to the top.
  We first find Caplan arguing that my co-author Grady Klein and I “shouldn’t have run [...]

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• My new paper with Elaina Rose on economics education

  Posted 12/11/09

  Elaina Rose and I have a new working paper out: Why are economics students more selfish than the rest?
  The abstract: A substantial body of research suggests that economists are less generous than other professionals and that economics students are less generous than other students. We address this question using administrative data on donations to social [...]

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• On “The Story of Cap and Trade”

  Posted 12/05/09

  There’s a new video out that criticizes cap-and-trade. Overall, I’d give it a “C”. Here’s why:
  The good

  The dangers of promising something for nothing. Many supporters of the current cap-and-trade legislation work hard to avoid the fundamental truth about cap-and-trade, namely that—like a carbon tax—it reduces pollution by making polluting expensive. As a result, it is [...]

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• Good thing my PhD’s not from Harvard!

  Posted 11/09/09

  Dick Armey (former House majority leader and himself an econ PhD) in an NYT Magazine article by Michael Sokolove:

  He spent the first part of his working life as a professor, rising to chairman of the economics department at North Texas State University. “I’m an economist and, I don’t mind telling you, a damn good [...]

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• My hilarious global warming exchange with Ruffin and Gregory

  Posted 11/06/09

  In November 2000 (almost ten years ago!) I received a complimentary copy of a new microeconomics textbook by two professors at the University of Houston. The book’s treatment of global warming was so amazing that I picked up some HTML (thanks Barb!!!) and brought their text onto the web, along with an email exchange with [...]

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