Anthony Downs at Brookings, from “What’s Wrong With American Housing“: Even before the dramatic collapse of housing starts after 2005, it should have been obvious to home building firms that they were in for a downward ride after starts surpassed two million in both 2004 and 2005. Those years of peak production led to an oversupply in …
I’ve not been writing much about energy for the last couple of years, and only following it shallowly, so the fact that New Mexico’s oil production has reached the highest level since 1998 kinda snuck up on me. But what’s going on here is child’s play. Look at North Dakota: John McChesney’s done some good …
We see this over and over again. Generally speaking, water is free to municipal/industrial customers in the United States. What we pay in our water bill is for the cost of delivery – the pumps and pipes. We’re paying for water delivery infrastructure, not the commodity itself. But we nevertheless generally price the water by …
Continue reading ‘Conservation and the water pricing dilemma’ »
The question of how much water we’ll need in the Southwest going forward is dominated by uncertainty over what future population growth will look like. And I confess that I’ve got no earthly idea how to think well about this question. Consider Phoenix. In his new ebook The Gated City, Ryan Avent argues that Phoenix …
Once this resource was provided*, those who failed to pay for it (such as me, drifting through Albuquerque’s Old Town plaza at the end of a long Saturday bike ride) could not be excluded from enjoying its benefits. In addition, my consumption of the resource (sitting in the shade listening to the music) did not, …
Continue reading ‘My education in economics: Public Goods’ »
Update: I was just waving my arms here, but a commenter who actually knows what s/he is talking about has stepped in with some valuable assistance. So skip my post below and just read this: The data you’re looking for can be found here, at the county level: http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/ruraldevelopment/developments.htm Like any data set, it’s open …
Excited to get my copy of The End of Abundance in the mail today!
Environmental economists talk about the relationship between affluence and environmental values – the idea that a society’s desire for things like clean air and water are low when folks are poor, but as basic needs for food and shelter are satisfied, environmental desires rise. It’s captured notionally in the “Environmental Kuznets Curve”. It’s not a …
Continue reading ‘Three Gorges: Spanning the Environmental Kuznets Curve’ »
It’s only Tuesday, but I think I can call the Quote of the Week already. Chris Brooks, on who will end up bearing the cost of the externality that is the drying Salton Sea: What typically happens is that the costs are imposed on a large, disinterested constituency – i.e. all the taxpayers of Calif. …
Ezra Klein’s nominally talking to economists, but you guys sitting in the back might get something out of this as well: Listen to political scientists, sociologists, etc. They have perspectives, evidence and training worthy of consideration.