ENVIRONMENTAL AND REGIONAL ECONOMICS
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Delivery method
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
The course is addressed to students who are supposed to have acquired – during the degree course – basic knowledge in economics, and hence who are able to understand and manage graphic and analytical models, as is typical of the discipline.
This notwithstanding, during the lectures all the concepts and categories needed to understand the proposed models will be defined and discussed.
Subject to the number of attending students, the learning assessment will be based on the completion of papers, where some empirical cases or evidence – proposed by the teachers – will be analyzed and discussed.
Were the number of effective attendees elevated, a written exam, based on open-ended questions, will be provided. The questions will cover both theoretical or methodological issues and analysis of empirical evidence (comment to data, tables, graphs).
Final evaluation will be expressed in marks out of thirty.
The course applies the principles of economic analysis to the environmental (tangible and intangible) resources management. The tourism sector, in fact, relies on the availability and the quality of these resources, as a crucial production factor and the industry professionals are interested in a responsible use, maintenance and enhancement of natural and environmental assets.
The ultimate aim of the course is to raise the awareness of the impact of the economic activity on the environment and provide a toolbox for reading and interpreting economic phenomena in a sustainability perspective.
Therefore, particular attention is devoted to:
a) methods of environmental impact analysis; in detail, the categories of cost-benefit analysis are examined, in order to develop the ability to evaluate the whole range of costs and benefits (both direct and indirect) of the economic initiatives involving environmental resources.
b) economic policy interventions: in particular, in a behavioral economics perspective – and alongside the study of prohibition and obligation measures – the issue of a proper distribution of incentives to a sustainable use of environmental resources is addressed.
With a view to the professional figures to be trained– and without disregarding the global aspects of the relationship between economy and environment (climate change, global warming) – the course will focus on local dynamics and choices, in a mainly microeconomic perspective.
The first part of the course (prof. Giuseppe Porro) aims at:
- providing the students with knowledge of essential elements and mechanisms of the analysis of the relationship between economy and environmental resources
- providing theoretical (descriptive models) and empirical (analytical methods) tools for understanding the interactions between the economic and the environmental system
- creating a basic knowledge of the different approaches the policymaker may use to regulate these interactions (prohibition, obligation and incentive measures)
At the end of this first part, consequently, the students are supposed to:
- be familiar with the analytical categories of environmental economics
- be able to sketch out a cost-benefit analysis of a specific economic initiative
- be able to explain the rationale and content of policy measures (both regulatory and prescriptive), properly discussing their adequacy to a specific situation.
The second part (prof. Flavia Cortelezzi) aims at:
- providing the students with knowledge of environmental issues and economic policies designed at an international level, within the frame of an increasing globalization, particularly in advanced economic systems
- exploring the connections of developing countries with the environmental system, both under a positive and a normative viewpoint, examining the major public policies implemented.
Therefore, at the end of this first part, the students are supposed to:
- be able to comprehend and analyze multifaceted environmental issues at an international level, as well as the rationale and content of policy measures (both regulatory and prescriptive) recently adopted, properly examining and discussing in depth a number of case studies.
First part (30 hours; prof. Giuseppe Porro):
1. Natural resource economics: basic concepts; environment as an economic and social asset; environmental sustainability; global and local environmental issues; the Green GDP
Theoretical elements:
2. Demand side: willingness to pay; a definition of benefits. Supply side: a definition of costs. Private and social costs; opportunity costs. The equimarginal principle
3. Markets, externalities and public goods. Economic efficiency, equity, social efficiency. External costs and benefits
4. Environmental quality. Pollution control: a general model. Damage function and abatement cost function. The socially efficient level of emissions.
Environmental analysis:
5. Approaches to the economic and environmental impact analysis: regulatory impact; risk analysis, benefit-cost analysis
6. Benefit-cost analysis: benefits of the environmental damage control. Estimating willingness to pay. Contingent valuation approach. Distribution of benefits
7. Benefit-cost analysis: social costs; opportunity costs; enforcement costs. Distribution of costs: technological change
Second part (20 hours: Flavia Cortelezzi):
The global environmental issue:
1. Global climate change: human footprints on the ecosystem; incentive-based approach for reducing emissions; the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement
2. International environmental agreements: the economics of international agreements; bilateral and multilateral agreements; the distribution of costs; the Montreal Protocol: a success story
3. Environment and globalization: free trade and environment; environment implications of globalization; regional trade agreements; environmental trade restrictions
4. Economic development and environment: environmental issues in developing economies; sustainability; the Paris Agreement in developing countries; technological change; analysis of the major public policies implemented.
The course provides 50 hours of classroom-taught lectures. A part of the lectures will be devoted to theoretical topics and analytical methodologies. Another part will be allocated to the presentation - by the teachers – of case studies that will be developed and discussed by the students, in individual or team works.
Seminars by external experts, both from the private and the public sector, will be scheduled.
The teachers’ rooms are in “Manica lunga” building, 1st floor, S. Abbondio Cloister.
The main moments devoted to consultation of the teachers about the lectures’ topics are before and after the lectures themselves.
Further moments of consultation can be established by e-mail appointment:
flavia.cortelezzi@uninsubria.it
giuseppe.porro@uninsubria.it