Environmental economics and policy

This course provides an introduction to the principles of environmental economics, with a focus on policy applications. The principal problem in any economics course is how to best allocate scarce resources. This holds true for environmental economics as well. However, environmental resources differ from other goods that economists study in that there is usually no market for them. Thus, government policies are needed to maintain and improve environmental quality. To appreciate the above aspects the fundamental concepts of Microeconomics necessary to understand the functioning of the economic system, the behavior of its agents, the market mechanism, the benefits of the exchange, as well as the cases where markets fail will be provided.

At the end of the course the student will have familiarized her/himself with the fundamental concepts of Microeconomic theory necessary to understand the functioning of the economic system, the behavior of its agents, the market mechanism, the benefits of the exchange, as well as the cases where markets fail. These concepts are instrumental to the comprehension of environmental policies and of the environmental sustainability of economic systems. The student will therefore have acquired competence on the fundamentals of economic analysis of environmental problems and on the objectives and instruments of pollution control policies.