Planning and Climate Change

This is my first blog post on this network and I'm happy to be here. For 1.5 years, I've been blogging by myself at greeneconomics.blogspot.com and this is the first time that I've been a "team" player. I'm hoping that debates and discussions on important policy issues take place here and I'll try to do my part to not be boring!

1 minute read

February 21, 2007, 8:28 PM PST

By Matthew E. Kahn


This is my first blog post on this network and I'm happy to be here. For 1.5 years, I've been blogging by myself at greeneconomics.blogspot.com and this is the first time that I've been a "team" player. I'm hoping that debates and discussions on important policy issues take place here and I'll try to do my part to not be boring! I am an economist though and we are rarely the life of the party!

I teach at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and my research focuses on environmental and urban issues. Right now, I'm starting to do some research on how climate change will affect different cities' quality of life. If planners are forward looking and anticipate these changes, then urban planning can certainly be a force for helping urbanites adapt to climate change. While I know that this is a vague, optimistic statement --- I'm starting to work on the specifics of fleshing this out.

I will return to this theme again and again.


Matthew E. Kahn

Matthew E. Kahn is a Professor of Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. After earning his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1993, he served on the faculties at Columbia University, Harvard University, Stanford and Tufts University. He has published numerous articles on environmental and urban topics. In September 2006, the Brookings Institution Press published his book Green Cities: Urban Growth and the Environment. He blogs on environmental and urban topics at greeneconomics.blogspot.com.

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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