jacob gellman

I didn’t appreciate that a downtown MAX tunnel in Portland would speed up *the whole system* by alleviating the main choke point.

Cool video about it:
youtu.be/OF2-lnj8vEQ

What prompts interest in climate change? - Yale Program on Climate Change Communication In June and July 2025, a majority of Americans experienced an extreme heatwave that pushed summer temperatures to record-breaking highs in places like New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. As ...

climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications...

What prompts interest in climate change? Batzer et al. explore Google search data to answer.

• Heatwaves drive interest more than wildfires or hurricanes.
• Climate change interest is seasonal.
• Search interest jumps temporarily after extreme weather events.

A New Supermodel Competition! What wildfire risk model should the California Insurance Regulator use to determine whether "price gouging" on insurance premiums is taking place?

open.substack.com/pub/matthewe...

Top states by EV or plug-in electric hybrid share (as of 2023):

CA: 4.5%
DC: 3.8%
HI: 3.0%
WA: 2.8%
OR: 2.4%
NJ: 2.4%

Rent freezes are a major part of Zohran Mamdani's platform for NYC mayor.

A nice review of the literature on the effects of rent control is Kholodilin (2024, J. Hous. Econ.)

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🚨New @nber.org WP🚨
We use data on 42,000 households in #India to study how the agricultural sector copes w/ labour loss. As #farmers move to cities for higher wages, their left-behind families *don't* substitute with increased capital -- they downsize their farms. (1/2)

Oregon’s cap and trade would be modeled after Washington’s.

Unlikely with only 5 weeks in the session, but would mean the whole West Coast under cap and trade.

First Street Foundation projected unhealthy air days over the next 15 years:

One consequence of restrictive development in urban cores:

Most of the employment growth in the western US since 1990 has taken place in high wildfire hazard areas.

Via Joiner, Walls, Wibbenmeyer 2025.

media.rff.org/documents/Re...

E.P.A. Is Said to Plan Deep Cuts to Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program Officials are moving to eliminate requirements that most big polluters disclose how much carbon dioxide and other planet-warming gases they emit.

RIP.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/c...

This paper was making the rounds, but did you notice it has a key contradiction?

They divide cities into two groups (high and low housing supply constraints), and estimate the supply elasticity—how much quantities change in response to prices. Result: no difference!

1/

People have very low willingness to privately and voluntarily reduce their carbon footprint.

Via Dechezleprêtre et al. (2025), "Fighting Climate Change: International Attitudes toward Climate Policies"

www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

What’s the longest footnote you have ever read

When I got my current job one of my committee members, Olivier Deschênes, said to me: "In the winter Alaska is very dark, so there won't be much to do besides work. And in the summer, the sun is out all day -- which is great for working."

The funny thing about the logged x-axis is it shows that utility is concave in wealth

This is so odd to me. CoreLogic was a much better name.

Political Ideology and US EV adoption, by Davis, Li, Springel.

Over 2012-23, EV adoption was driven by left-leaning areas, suggesting challenges in wider adoption.

Will be interesting to see how Elon Musk might drive apolitical and right-wing consumers to adopt EVs.

www.nber.org/papers/w33591

Earth's orbit is an open access resource.

Satellites debris creates congestion and, unchecked, could render regions of orbit unusable ("Kessler syndrome").

@akhilrao.bsky.social and Rondina (2025) characterize the conditions under which this could occur.

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

After the creation of New York City's congestion relief zone, average trip speeds increased significantly on trips within and to the central business district in Manhattan.

After the introduction of the congestion relief zone, vehicular emissions in New York City's central business district declined substantially.

New NBER paper shows dramatic effects of NYC's congestion pricing in contrast with a set of control cities: A large reduction in travel times on roadways—average speeds increased by 15%—combined with a substantial reduction in vehicular emissions. www.nber.org/system/files...

Cool results by @reidtaylor.bsky.social, Erich Muehlegger.

"The Effects of Competition in the Retail Gasoline Industry"

• Entry of gas stations lowers nearby prices.
• Effects are persistent.
• Effects decline w/ distance.
• No effect following nearby exits.

www.nber.org/papers/w33569

Insurance — public or private — likely won’t stop utility wildfire risks, experts say California's state-run wildfire insurance fund was an industry-leading model. Now investors and experts are voicing concerns about its potential collapse.

An article with a long and detailed discussion of the utility wildfire risk issue in California today. Worth reading if you are interested in these issues and the broader one of how to socialize these growing costs. www.utilitydive.com/news/insuran...

You love to see it

Seems like the experience in Oregon has been different? Free paper for someone…

bsky.app/profile/ande...

Hopefully this “share increase” has not come with decreases in total quantity either! Was that all Census Building Permit Survey data?

Argh!

The usual suspects! Is it posted as a WP? I couldn't find it on their websites... unless it's their paper about upzoning in Cook County, IL.

Has anyone looked at whether duplex/quadplex infill laws in Oregon and Washington have resulted in more housing? I wasn't aware of the barriers ("poison pills") that existed in California's previous attempt.

Check out this VoxDev writeup of my recently accepted paper on infrastructure, institutions, and biodiversity conservation! @voxdev.bsky.social

Excited to announce I am joining Oregon State University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Economics starting Fall 2025.

Thank you to my colleagues, coauthors, and friends across UAA, the UC system, and RFF. Looking forward to the rain and trees in the PNW.