Course 2024-2025 a.y.

The course provides students with a sound understanding of environmental and climate change economics. It examines the key role of economic activities as drivers of environmental degradation and climate change, and shows how economic tools can be used to investigate environmental problems and to design policies to address them. The students will rethink some key economic concepts like efficiency, externalities, and welfare aggregation, from an applied perspective. A set of interactive sessions will allow students to solidify their understanding of environmental economics through a hands-on approach.

At the end of the course, students will have a proper understanding of key environmental economics and policy concepts, including:

Welfare Economics and the Environment

Externalities

Sustainability and Intertemporalitly

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Environmental policy instruments

Basic dynamics of our planet’s climate system

Main economic implications of climate change

Basics of Energy Economics

Current status of International Climate Negotiations

At the end of the course, the student will be able to:

Understand many of the current international and European environmental policies

Contribute to preserving our planet by employing solid scientific knowledge

Make everyday decisions knowing what they imply in terms of their environmental footprint.

• Lectures
• Practical Exercises
• Collaborative Works / Assignments
• Interaction/Gamification

Teaching methods will include a combination of face-to-face lectures, interactive sessions and games, and in-class discussions.

Selection:

• Face-to-face lectures
  • Face-to-face lectures with use of new technology
  • Face-to-face lectures
• Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)
  • in-class exercises
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
  • Multimedia case studies
• Group assignments presentation
  • project work
  • presentation
• Interactive class activities on campus/online (role playing, business game, simulation,  online forum, instant polls)
  • Simulations
  • Interactive exercises

Group assignments are explained in the section about the exam.

In class we will use interactive activities to explore the role of public goods, international climate cooperation and many other topics.

Two Group Assignments, a Short Final Exam and a 75% attendance rate are compulsory for attending students.

For attending students, the final grade will be based on a group assignments component (60%) and an individual written exams component (40%).

If you start the course as an attending student, you have to stick to that option throughout the academic year.
 

Group Assignments:

1. Group Assignment 1 * (Video): 30% of the Final Grade.

Each group will produce a two/three-minute video presenting a specific environmental policy problem and briefly discussing possible policy solutions. The topic will be agreed on with the instructor. All students will watch and evaluate the videos produced by the other groups. A prize will be assigned to the best video based on peer evaluation. The grade of the video will be determined by the instructors. Detailed information and examples of videos will be provided in class and made available on Blackboard.

2. Group Assignment 2* (Short Memo): 30% of the Final Grade.

Each group will work on a brief policy memo supporting a specific policy proposal to solve an environmental policy problem (usually the same problem addressed in the video). The memo will be grounded on the academic literature and will defend a specific policy proposal, outlining its pros and cons and motivating why the former outweigh the latter. Each group will present their policy memo in class in the last few sessions of the course. Active participation during the other groups’ presentations is compulsory. Detailed information will be provided in class and made available on Blackboard.

Written exams:
 

Either
 

1. Short Mid-Term Exam for Attending Students - 20% of the Final Grade, covering the content of the first part of the course.

2. Short Final Exam for Attending Students - 20% of the Final Grade, covering the content of the second part of the course.
 

Or

1. General Final Exam for Attending Students- 40% of the Final Grade, covering the content of the whole course.

Attending students can either 1) take a short mid-term exam and a short final exam or 2) decide to directly take the long general final exam for attending students.

Attending students who opt to take the short mid-term written exam can decide to keep its grade or to drop it and take the final general exam for attending students.

A minimum grade of 18/30 in the final written exam (and in the mid-term exam, if taken) is required to pass the course.

Attending students can keep their attendance status – keep their assignments’ grades and mid- term grade, and take the short final exam - until the end of the academic year.

Final written exam (Long Version): 100% of the Final Grade
 

A minimum grade of 18/30 in the final written exam is required to pass the course.
Note that if you choose this type of exam you are still welcome to attend all classes!

The final written exam for non-attending students covers the whole content of the course. The exam has two sections: the first set of questions requires short answers and tests whether the student is familiar with the basic definitions and concepts of environmental economics. The second set of questions requires longer answers and allows the student to elaborate on connections that are visible at a deeper level of understanding of the topics covered during the whole course

Attending students need to study what is discussed in class (the instructors will share their slides). The instructors will provide details on the book chapters and on further suggested readings relevant to each session.

Barry Field and Martha K. Field, Environmental Economics, 8th Edition (2021).

Exam textbooks & Online Articles (check availability at the Library).