Tom Cui (Perpetual Amazement) (@ttfcui) header
Tom Cui (Perpetual Amazement) (@ttfcui) profile picture

Amateur academic at @UofNorthDakota for awhile // previously at @FurmanCenterNYU and @Wharton // Opinions are my own

Joined October 2016
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Why are many U.S. cities building less? Why have they insisted on a "thicket" of regulations that make housing hard to build? In a new #jobmarketpaper with @beau_bressler , I study how much of the answer lies with a forgotten federal program that taught cities to restrict growth
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"All publicity is good publicity" as some say, so something from me... The Urban Economics Association Meeting is happening again, in Chicago! For those in the area, join me Friday at 9 at a session I co-organized with a funny name: "Urban Dynamics After Big Policy Pushes"
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What do we mean by a "big" policy push? We mean studying programs - scaled up at a national level, - planned to solve problems with econ. growth and development. In the US or elsewhere, well-known or forgotten, we show those "pushes" had persistent, unexpected consequences on
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- The way cities have grown; - The people who live in them. My contribution will be this paper I harped on about, but there's a great variety of authors, with much to learn from every paper we'll have. I'm quite excited about it! teapawt.net/ttfcui/status/19937527…
Why are many U.S. cities building less? Why have they insisted on a "thicket" of regulations that make housing hard to build? In a new #jobmarketpaper with @beau_bressler , I study how much of the answer lies with a forgotten federal program that taught cities to restrict growth
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Tom Cui (Perpetual Amazement) retweeted
hello there the jacobian conjecture is false thanx to my close friend akhil for asking about it and my other close friend fable for working during the world cup final ((1+xy)^3 z + y^2 (1+xy) (4+3xy), y + 3 x (1+xy)^2 z + 3 x y^2 (4+3xy), 2 x - 3 x^2 y - x^3 z): \C^3\to \C^3, has jacobian determinant -2, and sends (0, 0, -1/4), (1, -3/2, 13/2), and (-1, 3/2, 13/2) to (-1/4, 0, 0)
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Tom Cui (Perpetual Amazement) retweeted
The Rent Guidelines Board recently voted for a two year rent freeze on NYC rent stabilized housing I was the lone dissenting vote I've written two pieces here; which highlight the challenges of a rent freeze and where to go next vitalcitynyc.org/mamdani-ren… cityjournal.substack.com/p/t…
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Here is a somewhat different way to look at the data (not perfect because I adjusted the DKs crudely) This graph deemphasizes Trump a bit and is more about: "how unprecedented is this midterm backlash, especially against 2018?" In these data, white college voters do swing back
This quoted post is unavailable.
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But maybe not to 2018 levels. The biggest backlashes are happening among independents, Hispanic/Asian voters and possibly baby boomers (?!)
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This is a great paper! It is currently a bit scattered, but it is also readable in a way you can't say for the most polished econ papers. An interpretation I have of the paper is that it sketches out the "two faces" of universities
New @nberpubs: "How Have Universities Survived for Nearly a Millenium" nber.org/papers/w35079
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schools trying to recruit and bid for "superstar" researchers. There's no inherent reason why superstar faculty need to be in a university and not an AI lab or industry, if they're offered high-powered incentives that exceed how their work complements other university services
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Then there's an argument that universities should let go of all their "AI talent," or be more willing to fire football coaches asking for too much of a raise, but also ensure the close link between universities and NIH funding isn't broken.
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Tom Cui (Perpetual Amazement) retweeted
North America has an elevator problem. Elevators are more expensive to install and maintain in the United States and Canada than elsewhere in the developed world.
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I think the calculation in this tweet is wrong, but let me explain my reasoning. While both numbers could be accurate, taking the ratio of them for a "spending per capita" doesn't make sense.
Absolutely astounding figures from the NY state comptroller: spending on services for the NYC street homeless population ran to $81,705 per person last year, up from $28,428 pp 6yrs ago. Figures do not include all kinds of other spending, supportive housing, policing costs etc.
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a modest rise in spending does suggest lower productivity. But let's say 200000 additional immigrants sought shelter and were all successfully helped. That would also blow up the budget by 400%, but shouldn't increase the unsheltered population by 400%.
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(That 400% growth figure, btw, is pulled from the rough estimate in the report, which was the third bullet point not screencapped.)
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