Environmental Economics Profile Course 30 credits

About the course

The course consists of four modules, each covering 7.5 ECTS: Energy Economics, Natural Resource Economics, Environmental Economics and Production and the Environment.

Module 1: Environmental Economics and Policy, 7.5 ECTS
The module aims to provide a deeper and advanced understanding of environmental economics and policy issues related to the environment and natural resources. The module also aims to provide knowledge to analyze and understand the economic impact of environmental policies. Furthermore, the module aims to provide advanced knowledge of both theoretical and empirical tools in order to make environmental economic analysis. The module is primarily conducted in seminars with mandatory attendance at seminars in environmental and natural resource economics. The examination of the module is in the form of seminars and report writing.

Module 2: Natural Resource Economics, 7.5 ECTS
The module contains theoretical studies on how microeconomics is used for analyzing natural resource problems. Theories on sustainable and efficient use of renewable resources will be presented. Attention will also be on theories on optimal use of non-renewable resources. The uses of many natural resources are regulated through some form of policy measure. A part of the module is, therefore, devoted to theories on market and regulation failures and the possibilities and limitations of different policy measures when it comes to correcting these failures. The module also involves a small course project on a chosen natural resource problem, which should be presented in written form and in a seminar.

Module 3: Energy Economics, 7.5 ECTS
The module aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of energy markets, as well as knowledge of how to analyze them and how they interact with the rest of the economy. A further aim of is to give students advanced tools to analyze how energy and environmental policies affect the demand and supply of different types of energy. The module will address a number of different types of issues related to demand and supply of energy. For example, one may ask how climate policy affects the energy markets. The literature that will be used consists mainly of a collection of separate articles attached to respective issue.

Module 4: Production and the Environment, 7.5 ECTS
The generation of unintended residuals when producing intended outputs is the key factor behind our serious problems with pollution. The way this joint production is modelled is therefore of crucial importance for our understanding and empirical efforts to change economic activities in order to reduce harmful residuals. The course is an introduction to advanced production theory analysis in general and production and the environment in particular. Production theory offers a mathematical framework for modeling important relationships between production activities and the environment. These include the generation and valuation of production-related environmental effects, environmental contributions to production processes, and production effects of environmental management practices. In this course, we review the seminal and recent empirical work in these areas. Specifically, the course will be focusing on the following topics:

• Modeling production and the environment
• Externalities, efficiency, and productivity
• Network and multi-function models
• Valuation and substitution
• Environmental policy and firm performance