Class Economics of the Environment and Natural Resources

The curricular unit of Environment and Natural Resources Economics has as main objective to make the students aware of the immediate need and to include the environmental variables in the decision making process. Taking into account that the majority of the current environmental problems are originated in human behavior and in the economy, it is intended to show students that it is possible to change our behavior in order to have a sustainable economic growth and compatible with the environmental balance. This curricular unit is extremely important in the training of students of economics, since it is urgent to change behavior both individually and economically, even if this means in the first instance an economic decline.

1. Introduction
2. Main Environmental Problems and Solutions
3. Efficiency and Markets
4. Market failures: Externalities, Public Goods and Environmental Policy Instruments
5. Pollution Control Instruments in Perfect Information
5.1. The Pollution Problem.
5.2. Definition of Pollution
5.3. Economic Policy Instruments and their Objectives
6.Theory of Environmental Demand
6.1. Availability to Pay
6.2. Types of environmental goods
6.3. Search measures
6.4. Search for environmental goods
7. Methods of valuing the environment
7.1. Hedonic Price Method
7.2. Contingent Valuation Method
7.3. Cost of Transport Method
8. The Future Discount
8.1. The consequences of the discount.
8.2. Discount over several periods.
9. Natural Resources.
9.1. Non-renewable resources
9.2. Renewable resources
9.3. Renewable energy
9.4. Fisheries economics
10. Final considerations

Use of case studies for class discussion.

Students are encouraged, through examples, to establish a relationship between theoretical principles and reality.

FIELD, Barry and Martha Field, Environmental Economics, McGraw Hill, 8 edition. 2020

KOLSTAD, Charles, Environmental Economics,OUP USA; 2 edition. 2010

BJORNDAL, Trond et als., Advances in Fisheries Economics, Blackwell Publishing, 2007

BJORNDAL, Trond and Munro, Gordon, The Economics and Management of World Fisheries. Oxford University Press. 2012

TITENBERG, Tom and Lynne Lewis, Environmental & Natural Resource Economics, Routledge; 11 edition, 2018 

NEHER, Philip, Natural Resource Economics; Conservation and Exploitation, Cambridge University Press, 1993 

BAUMOL, William J., OATES Wallace E., The Theory of Environmental Policy, Cambridge University Press, 1993. 

HARRIS, Jonathan M., Environmental and Natural Resource Economics: a Contemporary Approach, Routledge; 4 edition. 2017