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There is no way that betting on wildfires should be legal. www.oregonlive.com/wildfires/20...

As Oregon burns and gamblers bet, lawmakers push back against wildfire betting markets drawing millionsWyden and Merkley are urging federal regulators to crack down on prediction markets that allow users to wager on how long wildfires will burn and how much damage they will causewww.oregonlive.com

For some reason I was not aware of this FEMA dataset, USA Structures. It's shown in the new Qin and Voorheis (2026) NBER working paper about flood insurance. Parcel outlines, address, dwelling type, and other information for the whole country. gis-fema.hub.arcgis.com/pages/usa-st...

"Even without hurricanes, US disaster costs surpassed $100 billion last year." "More than half of 2025 disaster costs, $61 billion, were tied to the wildfires that burned in Los Angeles last January." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/c...

Even Without Hurricanes, U.S. Disaster Costs Surpassed $100 Billion Last Yearwww.nytimes.com

"Cheap Solar Is Transforming Lives and Economies Across Africa" www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/c...

Cheap Solar Is Transforming Lives and Economies Across Africawww.nytimes.com

Newer planes are also nicer to ride in.

See also Watson, Guettabi, Reimer (2020), "Universal Cash and Crime" in ReStat.

Prospective PhD student interested in environmental, agricultural, or development economics? Consider applying to Oregon State University. Video explainer on our PhD program: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

These are huge effect sizes.

M. Nolan Grey has a great breakdown of California's SB 79, the bill signed last Friday to upzone neighborhoods and add housing near transit. mnolangray.substack.com/p/everything...

Increased immigration to the United States since 1965 may have increased innovation and wages by 5 percent. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Good infographic:

Impossible for me to see this study, which values trade-offs in urban green space and car space, and not think about the congestion pricing experience in New York. Ex-ante people were protective of car space, but ex-post everyone seems to like congestion pricing...

I was not aware that a major driver of Indonesian deforestation is... American RV demand www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/w...

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? 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.

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...

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...