ECONOMIA E IMPRESAEconomia e management del territorio e del turismoAnno accademico 2022/2023

9796800 - ECONOMICS AND POLITICS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Docente: Isidoro MAZZA

Risultati di apprendimento attesi

To provide knowledge needed to understand how economic analysis can provide tools to respond to the environmental challenges that we face, and also to understand the limitations of the ‘traditional’ economic approach (knowledge and understanding); to prepare students to apply, in a critical and original fashion, what is learnt to the analysis of local, national and international policies (applying knowledge and understanding).

To stimulate students to exercise their critical skills so that they are capable to identify the main assumptions of the theory, the instruments adopted and the limits of the theory. The goal is to make students able to integrate the knowledge acquired and apply it to ascertain the potential environmental impact of market decisions as well as policies, and to propose remedies to minimize it, in view of being ready for the job market. To prepare student to interpret data and to help them developing critical analysis skills (Making judgments).

To foster the ability of students of exposition of personal opinions to experts as well as to a non-specialized public (Communication skills).

To stimulate students to study autonomously and communicate their knowledge clearly (Learning skills).

Modalità di svolgimento dell'insegnamento

Lessons in classroom; seminars by invited speakers.


Prerequisiti richiesti

None. Students are however encouraged to review basic microeconomics.

Frequenza lezioni

Students are strongly encouraged to attend classes. Erasmus students have to attend mot classes

Contenuti del corso

The course applies, in a critical fashion, economic principles to the evaluation of market activities and policies, with respect to the goal of preserving natural resources and ecosystems to support society’s wellbeing, also in a dynamic perspective. The programme will combine mainstream and unorthodox approaches, the ‘traditional’ and the ‘new’ environmental economics. Among the topics illustrated in the course are: property rights; externalities; methods for the valuation of the environment; cost benefit analysis; common pool resources; transition to renewable resources; price control; biodiversity and ecosystems; environmental inequality; environmental regulation and climate policies; the environment double dividend; social ecology; urban sustainability.   

Testi di riferimento

        1.   Éloi Laurent, The new environmental economics. Polity Press, 2020
        2.  Tom Tietenberg and Lynne Lewis, Environmental & natural resource economics. Pearson, 2012 (9th edition).
Notice. In book 2, example boxes and Mathematical Appendixes are not mandatory for students. Please do not include them in contents of the programme indicated in this syllabus.    

Programmazione del corso

 ArgomentiRiferimenti testi
1Introduction to the course1. Laurent: Chapter 1; 2. Tietenberg&Lewis: Ch.1
2The economic approach - part I: characteristics and property rightsTietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 2
3The economic approach - part II: externalitiesTietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 2
4The economic approach - part III: public goodsTietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 2
5The economic approach - part IV: correcting market failureTietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 2
6Cost-benefit analysis - part I: assessment of benefits and costs Tietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 3
7Cost-benefit analysis - part II: choice of discount rate Tietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 3
8Valuation of the environmentTietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 4
9Dynamic efficiency and sustainability Tietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 5
10Natural resources: taxonomy and transition to the use renewable resources Tietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 6
11The paradigm of dominance and the governance of the commonsLaurent: Chapters 2 and 3
12Environmental justice Laurent: Chapter 4
13A critical review of the concepts of natural resources, externalities and sustainability Laurent: Chapter 5
14Energy and regulationTietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 7
15Energy efficiencyTietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 7
16WaterTietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 9
17Agriculture and foodTietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 11
18Biodiversity and ecosystemsLaurent: Chapter 6
19Economics of pollution control Tietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 14
20Beyond extraction, pollution and wasteLaurent: Chapter 7
21Climate changeTietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 16
22Energy, climate and justiceLaurent: Chapter 8
23Sustainability and developmentTietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 20
24Population and developmentTietenberg&Lewis: Chapter 21
25Well-being and the environmentLaurent: Chapter 9
26Social ecology part ILaurent: Chapter 10
27Social ecology part IILaurent: Chapter 10
28The social-ecological transition Laurent: Chapter 11
29Urban sustainabilityLaurent: Chapter 12
30Concluding comments and discussion

Verifica dell'apprendimento

Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento

Written final exam in class and/or take home essay 

Esempi di domande e/o esercizi frequenti

When is an allocation of resources efficient?

2.      What structure of property rights could produce efficient allocations in a market economy and when?

3.      What is an externality? Why does it generate market failure?

4.      What is the definition of public goods and why do they generate market failure?

5.      What is a cost-benefit analysis and what is it needed for?

6.      What are the main problems in evaluating benefits, costs and discount rate in cost-benefit analysis?

7.      How do we value the environment?

8.      What are the reasons for public controls on the gas price?

9.      What is the problem of governing the commons?

10.   What it the so-called double dividend?

11.    Can you explain the phenomenon of environmental inequality?

12.   What is a socio-ecological state? 


English version