Prof. Charles D. Kolstad (Visiting Professor from University of California, Santa Barbara)

This is an upper division economics class with a prerequisite of Economics 50 (not a co-requisite -- you should already have taken Econ 50). Economics 51 would be nice but is not required. A working knowledge of differential calculus will be assumed. Our goal is for you to become familiarized with the fields of environmental and resource economics, with a particular emphasis on environmental economics. We will try to motivate our discussion with policy relevant readings. However, this course is primarily an economics course and as such will be heavy on theory and economics applications.

There are four main areas of economics that we will cover over the course of the quarter: externalities/market failure, environmental regulation, valuation and natural resources. The first of these is the public economics dimension of environmental economics whereas the second is the industrial organization dimension of environmental economics. These are the two primary fields from which environmental economics draws its theory. The third topic area, valuation, is uniquely environmental economics and is concerned with measuring the demand for environmental quality. The fourth area, natural resources, is an extension of capital theory to the case of renewable and nonrenewable resources, such as fisheries, forests, fossil fuels and minerals.

The requirements for the course are one midterm (20%), one paper (20%), one final exam (30%), approximately seven (weekly minus a few weeks) homework assignments (20%) and class/section participation (10%).

The midterm will be Thursday, May 4. The final exam is Saturday, June 3, 3:30 - 6:30.

Homeworks are due in class on Thursdays; homeworks handed in a day late will be penalized and homeworks later than a day will be graded but will not count. Your worst homework will be dropped in computing the homework part of your grade. See the assignments webpage. After the fact, see the solutions webpage.

The paper is due May 30 in class. The term paper should be an economic analysis of an environmental or resource issue in the news during the course of the quarter. Attach to the paper you submit a copy of the newspaper, magazine or other current affairs article (from the period January 1, 2000 -- May 30, 2000) that is the basis of your paper. The paper should be 5-10 pages in length and should draw on the tools we learn during this course. Please show your skills with references and footnotes as well as your command of the English language. Remember to focus on the economic dimensions of the environmental problem in your paper, not just the policy or informational dimensions. For more information, please refer to the paper webpage, which will be fleshed out during the quarter.

 The texts for the class are:

Charles D. Kolstad, Environmental Economics (Oxford University Press, New York, 2000) [referred to below as Kolstad]

The teaching assistants are:

I. Public Choice

Tuesday 3/28: Review of policy; preferences regarding the environment

Thursday 3/30: Social choice; cost-benefit analysis

II. Market Failure and Public Bads

[Reading list version 2/24/00]