The Policy Prof

Even more so than with houses, American cars have gotten larger over the past several decades. Many online articles have explained and analyzed that trend and we won’t repeat that analysis here. The EPA’s Automotive Trends Data page provides data on vehicle weights since 1975 and shows that two factors have contributed: increasing production of SUVs and trucks as compared with cars and station wagons and increasing average weights of vehicles in all classes. So, Americans are buying more SUVs and…

Many lists exist of the best movies of all time. In general, these lists fall into six categories: We provide here a list that aggregates categories 2, 4, 5, and 6 above. We see no additional value in considering categories 1 and 3, as those categories are subsumed by categories 2 and 4, respectively. There are many different methods of aggregating rankings across different categories into a single category. We opted for one of the simplest: a weighted Borda count…

For several decades starting in about 1950, American families got smaller, while new houses built in the United States got larger. We have started to correct those contradictory trends, with the mean family size stabilizing at about 3.13 people per family since 2012 and the mean new house size decreasing from 2,687 square feet in 2015 to 2,364 square feet in 2024. As a result, the mean new house size per person has decreased from 856 in 2015 to 755…