Environmental Economics for Environmental Sciences

The course provides an introduction to environmental economics and is developed for students of non-economic study programmes. It is also suitable as an introduction to environmental economics for students of economic study programmes. The aim of the course is to show how environmental problems can be approached and analysed using economic theory. Furthermore, the course demonstrates how economics provides guidance to address serious environmental problems such as global warming, ozone depletion, air and water pollution at different scales (global, regional). In particular, the course will establish the foundations of environmental economics. The students will learn how markets function and under which conditions markets fail, giving rise to a misallocation of resources causing environmental problems. These insights will then be used to analyse how policy interventions can correct market failure and enhance social welfare. The course also introduces students to recent policy developments regarding environmental and sustainability issues.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• Explain the theoretical foundations of environmental economics
• Explain key concepts, strengths and limitations of environmental economic analysis (e.g. sustainability, efficiency, Pareto optimality, market failure, externalities)
• Analyse important environmental problems (e.g. pollution) from an economic point of view
• Explain key economic instruments and policy measures for solving economic problems (e.g. taxes, subsidies, tradable permits) on an international scale
• Apply economic concepts in a specific case in the domain of environmental economics
• Compile and structure information about a topic in environmental economics for writing a scientific essay

Assumed Knowledge:
As a background, ENP10806 Environmental Policy Instruments or some basic understanding of (micro-) economic theory would be useful, but not mandatory. However, knowledge of basic mathematic calculus (e.g. MAT14803, but this is also covered in many high schools) is strongly recommended.