ECON 281 Environmental Economics
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Instructor: Roberto
Martínez-Espiñeira
What is Environmental Economics?
The economics and management of environmental resources is a field of growing global importance. Economic issues are of importance to individuals, firms, local and national governments, and increasingly to international organizations and agreements. It is becoming increasingly recognized that most environmental problems are the result of the interaction of ecological and other natural processes with economic forces and decision making, and that the traditional separation between Environmental Science, Economics, and Ecology is not very helpful to solve these problems.
In order to address such problems as the destruction of tropical moist forests, the loss of biodiversity, depletion of fish stocks, climate change, extinction of wildlife species, and acid rain deposition, we need to understand not only the ecological processes involved, but also the contribution of economic factors.
ECON281
Environmental Economics, ECON 281, will guide you through the study of environmental externalities and environmental public goods, environmental regulation policies, international environmental problems, and the valuation of non-market environmental resources.
The course starts with a review of the problems associated with market failure, which are behind most environmental issues. Then we will cover the use of both market-based instruments such as charges, standards, marketable emission permits and command and control instruments to correct these failures. This way you will learn to analyze international environmental problems from an economic viewpoint and to suggest policy measures to improve social welfare. You will study the principles and techniques on which environmental regulation in the real world is based, but also to consider the real-life obstacles faced by their application.
The last part of the course includes an introduction to international environmental problems (such the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, or the loss of biodiversity). We will talk about the basic ecological processes involved, but will focus on the economic analysis of the problems, introducing Game Theory as a tool to understand the varying levels of success of international environmental agreements, such as the Montreal Protocol or the Kyoto Protocol. Finally, the basic principles of environmental valuation will be presented.
Time Block:
Course
outline coming
soon
Contact the Instructor:
Dr.
Roberto Martínez Espiñeira
St. Francis Xavier University
Department of Economics
Phone: 902-867-5443
Fax: 902-867-3160
e-mail: rmespi@stfx.ca
Office hours:
TBA
Please phone 5443 to set an appointment if you cannot make any of the above
times.
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Last updated: 14-JUNE- 2008