Environmental Economics at undergraduate Level Professor Shiqiu ZHANG College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering INTRODUCTION: The main contents of this course will cover the theoretical basis for environmental economics; the economic analysis of environmental pollution and resources depletion, the allocation of environmental resources, the cost benefit analysis, the valuation techniques, the environmental policy and market based instruments, economic analysis of global environmental problems.
Outline 1- Introduction and Basic Concepts a) Economic Efficiency and Market Failure； b) Criteria for Decision Making, Benefit-Cost Analysis, Static Efficiency vs Dynamic Efficiency, Sustainability c) Public Goods, Property Rights, Externalities,Coase Theorem d) Valuing the Costs and Benefits of Environmental Regulation 2- Criteria for Decision Making a) Static Efficiency b) Dynamic Efficiency c) Sustainability 3- Property Rights, Externalities, Public Good，and Environmental Problems a) Sustainability b) Causes of Environmental Problems: c) Externality, public goods, Property Right, Common Property, d) Open Access, Coase Theorem etc 4- valuing the environment: a) Conceptual framework b) why value the environment c) revealed preferences approaches d) stated preferences approaches 5- Cost-Benefit Analysis a) Valuing the Costs of EnvironmentalPolicies b) Valuing the Benefits c) Cost-benefit analysis d) Cost-effectiveness analysis e) Decision making 6- Economics of Pollution Control
a) How much pollution is optimal? Or How much pollution control is optimal? (in theory) b) What is the least cost way of reducing pollution? c) How should the control of pollution be assigned to different sources? 7- Economics of Natural Resources a) Depletable Resources b) Non-Recyclable (coal, oil, natural gas) -energy economics c) Recyclable (minerals (aluminum, copper, iron, lead), paper, glass) d) Renewable (fisheries, forests) 8- Economic Growth, development and the Environment a) Development, Poverty, and the Environment b) Sustainable Development c) Environmental Kuznets Curve d) Green Accounting 9- Environmental Economic Policies/under the contexts of institutional and regulatory framework a) why policy?Environmental regulatory system and institutional arrangement b) What policy?Market based environmental policies vs C & C, information disclosure c) How policy works? d) Prices vs Quantities e) Policy options 10- Global Change and Global Environmental Agreement a) Trade and environment b) Climate change and policies c) ODS\POPs
Required textbook: Tietenberg, Tom. Environmental and Natural ResourceEconomics. Pearson Publishing. Supplementary books: Hartwick, John and Nancy Olewiler. The Economics ofNatural Resource Use. Second edition. Addison WesleyLongman, 1998. Stavins, Robert N., ed. Economics of the Environment:Selected Readings, Fifth Edition. New York Barry F. Field Environmental Economics: an introduction Chinese version 2010 Charles Kolstad Environmental Economics Chinese version 2011 Callan Thomas, Environmental economics and management
