NR&Env Econ Course

I kicked-off a new course yesterday. It is called "Natural Resources and Environmental Economics". It is in introductory level. This is the description:

This course is a blend of two parts, namely Environmental Economics and Natural Resource Economics, with more emphasis toward the former. The purpose of the course is to provide an overview of the principles of economics used to analyze environmental and natural resource problems. As of completing the course, students are expected to be able to assess environmental and natural resource problems with economics point of view and offer policy recommendation accordingly.

The text is Tietenberg.

This is the outline:

1. Introduction (Tietenberg, Ch. 1,2,5,21,22,23,24 / Julian Simon vs. Paul Ehrlich – some clippings.) 2. Property Rights, Externalities, and Market Failure (Tietenberg, Ch. 4 / Coase, Ronald, 1960.Social Cost," JLE 3:1-44) 3. Cost - Benefit Analysis (Tietenberg, Ch. 3 / Harrison, D., Jr. and D.L. Rubinfeld. 1978. Hedonic Housing Prices and the Demand for Clean Air. JEEM 5:81-102 / Carson, R.T, R.C. Mitchell, M, Hanemann, R.J. Kopp, S.Presser, P.A. Rudd, 2003 / Contingent Valuation and Lost Passive Use: Damage from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. ERE 25: 257-286. 4. Natural Resource Economics (Tietenberg, Ch. 5-14 / F.W. Bell, 1986. Mitigating the Tragedy of the Commons. SEJ 52:653-664 / Solow, R.M., 1974. The Economics of Resources or the Resources of Economics? AER Papers and Proceedings 64:1-14. 5. Environmental Economics (Tietenberg, Ch. 15-20 / M. Cropper and W. Oates, "Environmental Economics: A Survey," JEL, June 1992 / Arrow, K.J., P. Dasgupta, L. Goulder, G. Daily, P. Ehrlich, G. Heal, S. Levin, K; G. Mäler, S. Schneider, D. Starrett, and B. Walker, 2004. Are We Consuming Too Much? JEP 18(3): 147-172.

Having had the experience in the other program, I really told the students that we would be learning economics. Then we would try apply it to the problems of NR and Env. They seemed surprised that I am critical to the Kyoto Protocol and I am a pro-growth-pro-env.