Lynne Kiesling High-occupancy toll, or HOT lanes, may be constructed both on the Beltway and on I-95 south into Virginia. HOT lanes allow carpools to ride without charge, while single drivers can choose to pay a toll and ride in those lanes. My former colleague Bob Poole is one of the pioneers of the HOT …
Lynne Kiesling Last week’s quarterly earnings announcements made for a lot of wailing and tooth-gnashing about the profits of oil companies. I was too buried in other things to opine, but others said smart and useful things. Take, for example, this question from Russ Roberts to those who want to impose a windfall profits tax …
Lynne Kiesling Last week Randall Parker had a neat post on LED lighting advances, and how much energy savings we could create by switching from incandescent to LED. The article he cites suggests that the switch would also save us $125 million/year in electricity costs. Randall wonders if that number is low, but I don’t …
Quantum Dots Accidentally Replace Incandescent Lighting? Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Todd Zywicki has an interesting post over at Volokh about post-Kelo juries. His argument is good: public choice theory is consistent with the political failure to protect private property rights in the Kelo decision, all the way up to the Supreme Court. In the face of these political dynamics, juries change their decisions, …
Lynne Kiesling U.S. auto manufacturers, sit up and pay attention: the long-run effect of these high gasoline prices may be a change in the preferences of customers. What brought this home to me this morning was this post from Glenn Reynolds about car shopping with his wife. They compared a Toyota Highlander hybrid and a …
Lynne Kiesling The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that “gasoline prices fall as imports rise, demand drops”. Naturally, I cackled gleefully and clapped my hands when reading this. The EIA weekly petroleum status report indicates that Total product supplied over the last four-week period has averaged over 20.0 million barrels per day, or 3.2 …
I’m Shocked, Shocked to Find Competitive Dynamics Going On Read More »
Lynne Kiesling According to Chicagoist, Cub Foods stores in Chicago will start using a biometric payment system in November. The Pay By Touch system will enable shoppers to debit their checking accounts through a device that scans your finger, and uses its unique measurements as identification. The comments on the post are interesting, including melodramatic …
Lynne Kiesling To answer my own question, I’d say it depends on the model, and the stringency of the assumptions, and whether or not the model’s (and the economist’s) focus is on understanding human action, or on constructing an elegant, self-contained model. I agree with Tyler Cowen’s list of ways that economics research can derive …
Lynne Kiesling Dr. Vino has post on wine shipping costs, and various aspects of them. Shipping costs can be high; after all, glass bottles of liquids are heavy. That said, I think that the cult winery that is charging him $68 to ship a case of wine from California to New York could be gilding …
Lynne Kiesling Congratulations to Thomas Schelling and Robert Aumann on receiving this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics! I have profited from the work of both, and think this is a great award. Tyler Cowen has informative posts on both Schelling and Aumann. Honestly, I was exposed to Aumann through my classes in graduate school, but …
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