Matthew E. Kahn

Will AI and Robots Eliminate Poverty? In a provocative interview, Elon Musk said “AI and robots will eliminate poverty”.

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Monitoring Public Sector Mega-Projects What do Boston’s Big Dig project, the California High Speed Rail project, the Los Angeles Purple Line connecting the Pacific Ocean to downtown LA, and Manila, Philippines flood control investment have...

Efficiency boosts trust in government.
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Who Protects the Sheep from the Wolves of Wall Street? A Review of “Fixed” by Campbell and Ramadorai (2025) In the 2025 book Fixed: Why Personal Finance Is Broken and How to Make It Work for Everyone, John Campbell and Tarun Ramadorai (CR) provide a general audience overview of the main themes of modern hou...

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How Does the Rise of AI Impact Young Person's Labor Market Opportunities? Tonight at USC’s Department of Economics, I will participate in a panel discussion related to the rise of AI and its implications for the Labor Market.

A 14 minute discussion about AI, data, jobs, my mother, Robert Redford and selection bias.
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A Prospective Analysis of The Trump Administration's New Policy that Expands Access to "Miracle" Weight Loss Drugs Many applied microeconomists have had successful research careers measuring the intended and unintended consequences of policy changes.

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Mayor Mamdani's Policies Will Offer a High Stakes Test of the Urban Laffer Curve I lived in Manhattan from 1968 until 1972 and from 1993 to 1996 and from 1998 to 2000.

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Sneha Nimmagadda Email Address: snimmaga@usc.edu Phone: +1 (310) 359-5293

As the job market begins, I want to highlight a USC economics student who has written a better thesis than my 1993 "classic".
sites.google.com/view/sneha-n...

I am circulating a free copy of my new book about economic shocks.
drive.google.com/file/d/1vZro...

Rethinking Resilience: Adapting to a changing climate The most consequential climate-policy question for developing economies is how quickly people, firms, and governments can prepare for shocks, recover from them, and learn to do better next time.

Great to work on this report
www.worldbank.org/en/publicati...

New (Optimistic) Evidence on Adapting to Snowstorms In our information age, we have increasing access to real-time local weather forecasts.

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A Green Vibe Shift? While Led Zeppelin recorded “The Song Remains the Same”, Bill Gates is now singing a slightly different (optimistic) green tune.

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Lessons from the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics for the Abundance Advocates The 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics celebrates Creative Destruction.

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The Simple Economics of Flood Risk Model Uncertainty and Risk Modeling Progress Every property in the United States is at risk of flooding.

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The Economics of Shipping Green Power to U.S Cities versus Chinese Cities The New York Times has published an insightful article that allows the authors to sketch out the environmental benefits of an authoritarian state (where the CCP can allocate land as it sees fit) and t...

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Why Does Superstar Caitlin Clark Only Earn $84,000 to Play in the WNBA? Caitlin Clark is a superstar who earns $84,000 playing professional basketball in the WNBA.

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The Simple Economics of Shifting Electricity Demand Curves In this Substack, I build on my recent podcast. I present a simple geometric example to illustrate what economists mean when they discuss calculating the “derived demand” for electricity.

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An Incentive Proposal for Accelerating Tenured Faculty Retirement and Reducing University Budget Deficits I am deeply worried about the academic job prospects for young Ph.Ds in fields such as economics.

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A 7000 page free book. This is a big file. 150 meg.
drive.google.com/file/d/17uEI...

A Coasian Perspective on Improving Urban Public School Education In urban public education systems across the United States, an achievement gap persists.

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riponsociety.org/article/the-...

The Cost of Chronic Disease | The Ripon Society As of 2023, roughly 194 million American adults had at least one chronic condition, which cost our nation’s economy billions of dollars each year.

My mother says that this photo makes me look like a candidate running to be the Governor of Missouri. I hope she agrees with 72% of my points here.
riponsociety.org/article/the-...

Equality Before the Law in U.S. Civil War Courts-Martial Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

Costa!
www.nber.org/papers/w34184

A Podcast on The Benefits of Co-locating Power Plants Next to Data Centers The microeconomic perspective on daily events.

A 9 minute podcast on data centers and AI and power plant geography.
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Do the GSEs=SOEs? Mortgage Securitization Reform Lessons from China's State Owned Enterprises

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Hoover Fellows Program A PATH for early-career scholars The Hoover Institution at Stanford University seeks outstanding scholars for positions as a Hoover Fellow. The term of the appointment is five years and may be renewed...

The Hoover Institution is now accepting applications for the 2026 Hoover Fellows Program. This five-year fellowship offers early-career scholars a platform to pursue research shaping public policy. Learn more and apply here: www.hoover.org/hoover-fello...

Prospective Rosy Predictions of the Benefits of Costly Megaprojects Result in the Misallocation of Capital California’s High Speed Rail project is very costly and highly subsidized by the Federal Government.

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Why Don't Suburban Phoenix Voters Support Raising Carbon Taxes? Every Monday, the NBER releases its new set of Working Papers.

True, false, uncertain. Briefly explain.
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Will the Rise of WFH Increase the Likelihood that Women Work and Have Children? This Substack will zigzag as I discuss 50 years of economic demography research (focused on the work of Gary Becker and Jacob Mincer) and then I will pivot and discuss my demography research before I ...

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Has the Rise of Work from Home Reduced the Motherhood Penalty in the Labor Market? Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

www.nber.org/papers/w34147