Course topics:

• Global social problems
• Global environmental problems
• Ecosystems and human well-being: ecosystem services
• The measurement of economic activity in orthodox economics (SNA) and its heterodox critiques
• Alternative well-being and sustainability indices (HDI, GS, ISEW/GPI, Ecological Footprint)
• Environmental problems in an orthodox perspective: externalities in environmental economics (Pigou, Coase)
• Microeconomic foundations of environmental policy (norms, taxes etc.)
• The tragedy of the commons and its solutions
• Introduction to environmental valuation methods

Aims:

After the course the students are going to have a basic overview of the most important topics of environmental economics.

Hanley, N. – Shogren, J.F. – White, B. (2001): Introduction to Environmental Economics. Oxford University Press, New York. pp. 350, ISBN 0-19-877595-4

Field, B.C. – Field, M.K. (2006): Environmental Economics. An Introduction. 4th edition, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York. pp. 503, ISBN 0-07-313751-0

Ostrom, E. (1990): Governing the Commons. The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 280, ISBN 0-521-40599-8