Environmental Economics-ECON 3100
Fall 2021
Course Description
Environmental economics concerns some of the most critical issues of our time. These issues include air and water pollution, global warming, and the depletion of natural resources. This course analyzes the economic causes of these environmental issues and equips students with economic tools to evaluate and design environmental policies. We begin by examining market failures from externalities and common pool resources. We then discuss public policy options to correct these failures, and develop tools to assess the costs and benefits of each approach. Along the way, we will apply this framework to evaluate specific environmental regulations past and present.
Course Objective
Upon course completion, participants are expected to be able to
1. Explain the economic causes of environmental problems
2. Analyze environmental issues appeared in the news using economic tools
3. Compare and contrast the merits and drawbacks of environmental policies from the perspectives of cost effectiveness, equity, enforceability and environmental sustainability.
4. Understand the methods economists use to value environmental goods
Prerequisites: ECON 2210, or the combination of ECON-1100 and one of MATH-1300, MATH-1760 or MATH-1720
Required Textbooks
Markets and the Environment Second Edition– Keohane, Nathaniel O. and Sheila M. Olmstead. Washington, DC.: Island Press. 2016
