ECON 349-01, Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, Spring 2012

Abstract

In this course we study the economic and environmental implications of natural resource management. The course covers conceptual and methodological topics, including sustain- ability, that will be applied to contemporary issues such as depletion of renewable resources, land scarcity and climate change. The rst part of the course focuses on economic concepts and models as indispensable tools to analyze natural resources and environmental problems that will be discussed in the last two parts. In particular, in the second part of the course we will present contemporary issues in energy and water economics in addition to the management of renewable resources such as sh stocks and forestry. The nal part of this course will introduce some problems related to the use of environ- mental resources such as air, rivers, lakes and oceans as repositories for pollution. By the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to recognize the separate and complementary roles of markets and governments in allocating the use of environmental and natural resources and perform independent analyses of public policies related to con- temporary environmental issues.