Course Details
Course Information Package
Course Unit Title | ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS | ||||||
Course Unit Code | ABSE305 | ||||||
Course Unit Details | |||||||
Number of ECTS credits allocated | 5 | ||||||
Learning Outcomes of the course unit | By the end of the course, the students should be able to:
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Mode of Delivery | Face-to-face | ||||||
Prerequisites | ABSE203,ABSE204 | Co-requisites | NONE | ||||
Recommended optional program components | NONE | ||||||
Course Contents | Four economic questions about global warming: How much pollution is too much? Is the Government up to the job? How can we do better? Can we resolve global issues? Ethics and Economics: Utilitarism and social welfare functions as externalities Pollution and resource degradation: the open access problem, the public goods problem. Case study: over fishing and aquaculture The efficiency standard: efficiency pollution levels, the Coase theorem, the ethical basis for efficiency standard The safety standard: the right to safety? Inefficient, not cost effective and regressive? Sustainability: a neoclassical view and ecological view (net national welfare, natural capital depreciation, future benefits, costs and discounting, Malthus and ecological economics, measuring sustainability and the ecological versus neoclassical debate) Measuring the benefits and costs of environmental protection (types of non market benefits, consumer surplus, risk assessment and perception, engineering costs, productivity and employment impacts of regulation and monopoly costs) Is more really better? Consumption and welfare (money and happiness, social norms and rate race, positional goods and consumption externalities, welfare and social consumption) Environmental regulation: the process of regulation, regulation under imperfect information, bureaucratic discretion and political influence Monitoring and enforcement: the economics of crime and punishment, compliance record and cost effective enforcement Incentive-based regulation: cost effectiveness and technological progress. Case study of the Carbon Dioxide Trading system in Europe Promoting clean technologies: small scale and large scale technologies: case studies Energy policy and the environment: electricity, heat and transport Poverty, population and the environment: family size, population growth and the global environment. How to envisage a sustainable future? Environmental policy in poor countries: damaging subsidies, property rights, resource conservation and debt relief The economics of global agreements: monitoring and enforcement, biodiversity and global warming | ||||||
Recommended and/or required reading: | |||||||
Textbooks |
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References |
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Planned learning activities and teaching methods | Lectures, discussions and presentations by students | ||||||
Assessment methods and criteria |
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Language of instruction | English | ||||||
Work placement(s) | NO |