Lynne Kiesling As a celebration of impending spring, I give you economics journalist Olaf Storbeck’s sound analysis of the economics of bike lanes. His prompt for writing was a rant from John Cassidy in the New Yorker about the tradeoff between bike lanes and “free” street parking spaces. Storbeck’s analysis is thorough, and goes beyond …
Michael Giberson A couple of interesting readings: The New York Times reports, “Gas Prices Soar in Iran as Subsidy Reduced.” (Also: Washington Post, Wall Street Journal.) Cape Wind Project still has half of its capacity up for sale. (Local utility claims it can find cheaper renewable power elsewhere.) The Economist, “Why do firms exist?” on …
Iran Cuts Fuel Subsidies and Other Energy and Economics Links Read More »
Michael Giberson Under North Carolina’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard, poultry waste burned to boil water to generate steam to turn a turbine generating electricity will earn RECs which can be sold to electric utilities needing to meet the state’s new renewable energy standard. Also under the law, poultry waste burned to boil …
The Differences Between Renewable Energy and Renewable Power in North Carolina Read More »
Michael Giberson Preston McAfee and Tracy Lewis introduce Coasian bargaining in their economics textbook with the question, “Can I just bribe my neighbor to stop being annoying?” The complementary question, perhaps asked by the neighbor in question, “Can I just bribe my neighbor to stop being annoyed (or at least not to complain about me)?” …
Lynne Kiesling I was intrigued last week to read Bruce Yandle’s short piece in Regulation discussing Pigou and his ideas about taxation in the context of modern “Pigouvian” policy proposals. I recommend his essay highly; it communicates eloquently how Pigou’s ideas are currently being used as a justification for a variety of forms of taxation. …
Pigou As Public Choice Economist, Not a Pigouvian Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Today David Henderson has penned the traditional Wall Street Journal commentary on yesterday’s Nobel award to Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson. He provides an excellent summary of the importance of their work, and I recommend it to you highly. In fact, David’s theme reconciles what some commenters have observed as a political or …
Henderson, Smith on the Nobel and Its Implications for Economics Read More »
Michael Giberson From the New York Times City Room, “U.S. Won’t Auction Airport Landing Slots“: The United States Department of Transportation has canceled a plan to auction landing slots at New York City’s three airports, officials announced on Wednesday, bringing an end to a widely criticized effort by the Bush administration to use market incentives …
Administration Abandons Airport Landing Slot Auction Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Friday’s Wall Street Journal editorial on cap and trade and the Waxman-Markey bill has prompted me to come out of the closet and say something publicly that I’ve been thinking for a couple of months: although I think that the most effective and economically efficient carbon policy is one that directly reflects the …
Can Congress Be Trusted to Design Effective Carbon Policy? I Doubt It Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Some things catching my attention this morning: 1. The Kauffman Foundation’s Keith Mays reports on his time at the SXSW Interactive conference via Tim Kane at Kauffman’s Growthology blog. SXSW isn’t just a music festival; it’s a focal event for film and for digerati as well. In part he analyzes the role of …
Lynne Kiesling On Thursday President-elect Obama named law professor Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, an executive-branch office with the mission of analyzing and coordinating federal regulation. Most recently, Sunstein is known for his work with Richard Thaler on “choice architecture” and behavioral public policy, including their book Nudge. Others …
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