Lynne Kiesling I really like this column by economist Charlie Wheelan about the airline industry: There are a lot of industries and businesses that I don’t thoroughly understand. But they’re different from the airlines in two key respects: 1) They don’t routinely make my life miserable; and 2) They seem to make a lot of …
Lynne Kiesling Just a quick little note that despite high crude inventories in the US, the dominant driver right now in world oil markets is the chance that Turkey will invade Iraq to attack Kurdish militants there. These roilings have added about $7/bbl to oil prices, currently hovering around $87/bbl.
Lynne Kiesling In the comments to my previous post on the Nobel announcement yesterday, David Tufte asks for some extended comments on the Hurwicz, Maskin, Myerson Nobel decision. My perspective shares quite a bit with those of Alex Tabarrok in Reason yesterday and Pete Boettke in the Wall Street Journal today (subs. required). Both Hurwicz …
Lynne Kiesling Mechanism design is the topic awarded this year’s economics Nobel, with the award going to Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin, and Roger Myerson (two Northwestern connections there!). Mechanism design was the bread and butter of my graduate training, and has led to some important insights with respect to incentives, contract design, and market design.
Lynne Kiesling Today sees a couple more articles about Radiohead’s decision to sell their album online, at prices determined by the buyer. This New York Times article highlights one thing that I find interesting: letting the radio listeners themselves determine which songs off the album should be considered the “hit singles”: The Radiohead camp has …
Lynne Kiesling Last Thursday we saw De Novo Dahl, Bedouin Soundclash, and Hot Hot Heat at the Vic in Chicago. Punch line: great show, very fun. More below the fold.
Lynne Kiesling Thanks to Jesse Walker at Reason for the link to the Baltimore Sun’s Bay & Environment Blog. If, like me, you are interested in environmental issues pertaining to water use, this site looks like it will be quite useful. The current top post by Rona Kobell prompts me to think about something that …
Lynne Kiesling The regulatory policies of the past century in the electricity industry have enshrined the regulatory compact: in return for being granted a monopoly franchise with legal entry barriers, the regulated utility assumed an obligation to serve all customers in their service territory who desired service. The compensation received for this bargain is an …
The Regulatory Compact and Its Consequences for Innovation Read More »
Lynne Kiesling As has been pointed out here, at Environmental Economics, and elsewhere, the ethanol subsidies included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 have wrought a host of unintended consequences: the shift in demand increased corn prices, inducing farmers to substitute out of growing soybeans and into growing corn. This production substitution was not …
Proprietary, Sweeter Tomates: Another Unintended Consequence of Ethanol Subsidies Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Today sees a good article from the aforementioned Jonathan Adler on regulatory barriers to innovation and implementation of renewable energy. His conclusion: To promote alternative energy development, there’s no need for more handouts. Instead the government should get out of the way. If the goal is to increase actual alternative energy production, and …
Adler On Regulatory Barriers To Renewable Energy Read More »
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