Course Description:

This class presents the economic analysis of resources management and environmental problems such as pollution. The economic concepts of externality, public goods (non-rivalry and non-exclusion) and market failure provide the rational for public intervention. Environmental regulations are compared using the notion of economic efficiency and the cost-benefits approach. Policy implementation theory allows to handle uncertainty and heterogeneity problems. The
precautionary principle is analyzed using the theory of choice under uncertainty and real option valuation. The economics of biodiversity and endangered species is also introduced.

Course Outline:

I - Environmental Economic Analysis
Economic Efficiency And Markets
Cost-Benefit Analysis

II- Environmental Policy Analysis
Decentralized Policies: Liability Laws, Property Rights. The Coase Theorem.
Command-And-Control Versus Incentive-Based Policies.

III-Policy Implementation
Risk And Moral Hazard
Heterogeneity And Adverse Selection.

IV-Risk And Precaution
Option Value
Cost-Benefit Analysis And Uncertainty

V-Economics of Biodiversity
The Noah's Ark Problem.

Textbooks:
R Perman, Y Ma, J McGilvray & MS Common, (2003), Natural resource and environmental economics, (third ed), Pearson Education, Harlow.

Hanley, N., Shogren, J. F., & B. White (2007). Environmental economics in theory and practice. Oxford university press, New York.

Dernière mise à jour : vendredi 9 mars 2012