Using old containers from cargo ships, commercial urban farmers are growing hydroponic mini-lettuces and even strawberries in warehouses and garages.…
Environment
Environmental economics looks at the positive and negative impact of growth. Especially focusing on marginal analysis and externalities, econlife looks at our current impact on the environment and our use of natural resources in the US and beyond.
A Surprising Way to Cut Healthcare Costs
Assume for a moment you are in a doctor’s office observing an examination. A 70-year old male patient enters pulling an oxygen tank and wearing a baseball cap. Because the doctor has been seeing…
Why an Economist Can Solve a Poop Problem
Sometimes you need an economist who figures out how to improve Senegal’s sanitation by getting more people to use toilet suckers.…
The Huge Impact of a Rather Irritating Invention
While the cost of free parking in New York City is rather huge, it can be offset by what was a seemingly insignificant and irritating innovation.…
How Traffic Lights Relate to Adam Smith
When no traffic lights on the island of Nantucket has created good will among strangers, it also might show the limits of Adam Smith’s laissez-faire.…
The Impact of a Bee Sting on Your Big Mac
The market’s message from bee pollination prices has minimized the impact of colony collapse disorder (CCD) on our Big Mac.…
Law and Odor at a North Carolina Hog Farm
You have a regulatory dispute when North Carolina’s hog farmers want to use their less costly manure lagoons while neighbors, objecting to the smells, want legal limits.…
When a Tesla Price Tells Us All We Need To Know
Just by looking at a $35,000 Tesla price, we can decide if Elon Musk is creating luxury vehicles or cars for the masses.…
Explaining Why We’ll Have New Hotel Shampoo Bottles
Describing why we’ll have new hotel shampoo bottles, Marriott, a hotel guest, and an economist would have different explanations.…
Why It’s Tough To Be a BFC (Bike-Friendly City)
Looking at the world’s most bike-friendly cities, you can see why only one city in the U.S. was among the top twenty in 2015 and none were there in 2017.…