Fundamentals of Economic and Financial I

Course Overview

Investors in residential and commercial real estate, those in infrastructure and supply-chain, to name a few examples, are exposed to risks of flooding, droughts and forest fires as a consequence of the reverberations of climate change on environmental factors and weather. Such risks are higher for stakeholders with properties close to the coast or in regions where drought and forest fires are increasing (e.g., the Western U.S.) as well as for financial institutions that finance their purchases and hold their securities. Risks associated with sea level rise, flooding, inundation and other extreme events have generally not been properly assessed nor quantified and it is currently hard for investors to assess the risks that they now face, and will face in the future, from climate change. Moreover, the consequences of climate change go beyond the financial and economic ones, as in the case of climate justice, in which the social cost of the climate change impacts is paid by those who are the least responsible and that are the most vulnerable from a socio-economic perspective.

The course will focus on fundamentals on economic and financial impacts of climate change. We will discuss the major impacts of climate change from a financial and climate perspective. This work will be spread throughout the semester through presentations by the teacher, guest speakers and in-class discussions from the readings. The class will also focus on specific topics for the required final project. Students will be able to use the SEPHER dataset, developed at Lamont and focusing on real estate, socio-vulnerability of people exposed to climate change impacts, with emphasis on racial issues, economic wealth and phenomena such as climate gentrification and housing. The students will be exposed to the dataset at the beginning of the course and will be taught how to visualize the data without any computer science knowledge.

Students will explore the state of the art of current literature on the topics described above and discuss in class about the most updated findings and their economic drivers or implications. Then, students will be exposed to the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) to map quantities of interest using SEPHER 2.0. With this powerful and yet simple tool, students will be able to visualize variables to analyze maps to develop ideas and support hypothesis integration and growth. The students will be exposed to training when they will be doing practical hands-on exercises to create