Environmental Economics

This course will cover economic approaches to optimally manage natural resources and the environment. We will start with a brief review why unregulated markets will lead to suboptimal environmental outcomes (market failures like externalities, public goods, and open access). The second part discusses different ways to intervene in the market (command-and-control, taxes, subsidies for innovation, pollution permits, and property rights). Economic concepts will be discussed using recent policy issues (climate change, green new deal, fossil fuel markets, carbon tax, interstate pollution regulation, and ecosystem services). The third and final part discusses how to empirically estimate the cost of environmental regulation on regulated industries as well as the benefits to consumers and firms.