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COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course provides a comprehensive account of the application of economic analysis to environmental issues. The course covers both methodological topics and recent applications. Using microeconomic principles, we will examine such topics as the sustainability problems, ethics and the environment, climate change, irreversibility and uncertainty, trade and the environment, public policies, and business practices.
Preliminary COURSE OUTLINE:
Following is a tentative outline. I will let you know if there are any additions, deletions, or rearrangements. I don’t want to tie us to an inflexible schedule, but I’ll keep you posted each week on where you should be in the reading.
Part One: Economics and Environment
Primer: Economic Concepts for Environment
Market failure and public policy
Concepts of sustainability
Ethics and the environment
Part Two: Global environmental problems
International externalities
Trade and the environment
Global climate change
Acidification, ozone layer, and biodiversity
Linkages
Part Three: Practice in environmental policies
Pollution control: Targets and instruments
Sustainable development and politics
Water and air pollution
Recycling and waste
Emission trading
Part Four: Environmental management and strategy
Approaches to business and the environment
Differentiating products
Managing your competitors
Saving costs
Managing environmental risk
Redefining markets
SUPPLEMENTS:
Charles Kolstad. Environmental Economics. Oxford University Press. 1999.
Robert N. Stavins, ed. Economics of the Environment: Selected Readings, Fourth Edition. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.
Forest L. Reinhardt, Down to Earth: Applying Business Principles to Environmental Management Harvard Business School Pr., 1999.
ASSESSMENT:
Grades will be assigned according to the following weighting scheme:
20 % Mid-term Exam
40 % Final Exam
20 % Homework
20 % Class Participation
The homework must be typed in single space, and please keep one copy for yourself.
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