OVERVIEW

The course provides a theoretical framework to analyze the process of decision-making in the environmental sector and the use of policy instruments in relation to specific cases of environmental resource management and economic activities that produce serious impacts on the environment

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Knowledge and understanding. Students should acquire knowledge and capacity of understanding of: the relationship between environmental protection, economic efficiency and market failure; the sustainability criterion  as the capacity of synthetizing economic growth while preserving the ecological basis of economic development

Applying knowledge and understanding. Students should be able to critically evaluate the role of environmental and public policy intervention in orienting and regulating markets and the operators to the goal of sustainability

Making judgments. At the end of the Course, students must be able to apply the acquired knowledge in order to formulate an independent judgment and a critical thinking on environmental policy choices. They will be able of analyzing the main economic effects of alternative hypotheses of public and private choice on the environment, from the point of view of the efficiency-equity trade-off

Communication skills Students will acquire the technical terminology to relate to both specialists and non-specialists, companies and institutions as decision making agents that are related to the environmental and economic variables

Learning skills. Students will acquire appropriate skills to improve the studying of specific topics of the discipline.
The course will offer students different methodologies for assessing environmental costs and benefits, characterized by a rigorous formal setting.

LEARNING OUTCOMES (FURTHER INFO)

Recommended prerequisites are the knowledge of: the basic principles of Microeconomics, the competition system (supply and demand functions); income and substitution effects

TEACHING METHODS

Attendance is recommended. The teaching will include lessons, seminars, classroom discussions and  homework.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Topics included:

The Environmental Economics
• Scarcity, resource allocation and optimization
• Non-renewable resources: intertemporal models for optimal use
• Renewable resources policies
• Sustainable development and growth patterns
Efficiency and control of environmental problems
• Environmental externalities and pollution
• economic and fiscal policies for environmental control
Economic analysis of collective choices and collective decision-making processes
• Economic evaluation techniques for environmental/social costs and benefits
• Intergenerational equity
• Environmental impact assessment, strategic environmental assessment and multi-criteria techniques
• Non market techniques and deliberative democracy aimed at deriving operational criterion for environmental sustainability

Methodological approaches:

• Hedonic prices
• Contingent Valuation
• Choice experiment

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

The textbook and other additional supports (slides, homework texts, ...)  will be posted on Aulaweb

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

BARBARA CAVALLETTI (President)

DANIELA MINETTI

MARCELLO MONTEFIORI

LESSONS

LESSONS START

I sem.

19 sept. 2016 - 15 dec. 2016 

Class schedule

ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS

EXAMS

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Alternatively written/oral examination in English

Exam schedule