21210455 - Economics and environmental policies

The course is divided into two parts. The first part aims to provide the conceptual and theoretical basis for understanding the main topics of environmental economics from the perspective of analyzing the interaction between human activities and the environment and its consequences. Topics such as environmental valuation methods, environmental externalities and the management of public goods will be addressed, providing students with skills in the tools of economic theory used to address these issues, such as command and control and market-based environmental policies. Both static and dynamic environmental sustainability issues will also be addressed. The second part, on the other hand, will focus on specific thematic areas of environmental economics relevant for the application of the tools addressed in the first part of the course: the thematic areas will be discussed in depth with the students during the lectures, recalling the aspects of the first part of the course useful for a more correct analysis of the issues in question. Practical exercises concerning each thematic area will also be proposed during lectures.
scheda docente | materiale didattico

Programma

1. Introduction to environmental economics
1.1 The origins of the problem
1.2 Interdependency economy-environment
1.3 GDP growth and welfare measure
1.4 Sustainability
1.5 Pollution extension and types
1.6 Natural resources

2. Ethics and economics
2.1 Natural philosophy
2.2 Libertarian philosophy
2.3 Utilitarianism
2.4 Critique to utilitarianism

3. Social welfare and environmental sustainability
3.1 Pareto efficiency
3.2 Social welfare function
3.3 Kaldor- Hicks-Scitovsky compensation tests
3.4 Market failures
3.5 Second-best theorem

4. Environmental policy
4.1 Public goods
4.2 Externalities
4.3 Environmental pollution models
4.4 Flow and stock of polluting emissions
4.5 Emission efficiency in static models
4.6 Emission efficiency in dynamic models

5 Environmental policy: instruments
5.1 Tax and subsidy
5.2 Command-and-control
5.3 Permits

6 Monetary valuation
6.1 Contingent valuation method
6.2 Hedonic price method
6.3 Cost-Benefit analysis

Testi Adottati

Cote Text
Title: Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
Authors: Tom Tietenberg, Lynne Lewis
Editor: Routledge, 2024
In substitution to lecture notes:
Title: Natural Resources and Environmental Economics. 4th Edition, 2011
Authors: Perman Roger, Ma Yue, Common Micheal, Maddison David, McGilvray James.
Editor: Pearson


Modalità Erogazione

Written, oral examination

Modalità Frequenza

Lectures in class

Modalità Valutazione

Written with exercises and open questions