Resource and Environmental Economics 731'324

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Resource and Environmental Economics (731.324)

• Dr. Erwin Schmid
• erwin.schmid_at_boku.ac.at
• Spring Semester 2009

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Course Outline

• 1. Sustainable Development
• 2. Principles of welfare economics (tools and
  concepts)
• 3. Economics of non-renewable and renewable
  resources (resource economics)
• 4. Economics of external effects (environmental
  economics)
• 5. Special Topics e.g. climate change,
  bio-diversity, etc.
• Course Grading
• Exam end of semester, or
• Scientific seminar paper Those who are already
  advanced in environmental and resource economics
  have the option to hand in a scientific seminar
  paper by the end of SS2009 (ca. 15 pages).

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Seminar paper in environmental and resource
economics

• Write a Seminar Paper (ca. 15 pages) about an
  environmental and/or natural resource problem
  from an economic point of view using scientific
  journal articles (e.g. Ecological Economics
  Journal of Environmental Economics and
  Management etc.).
• A topic related to environmental and natural
  resource problems e.g. in agriculture, forestry,
  fishery, climate change, bio-diversity, waste
  management and recycling, soil protection, water
  pricing, land-use change, etc.

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Structure of the seminar paper (ca. 15 pages)

• Title of the paper
• Your name and affiliations (Matrikelnummer,
  etc.)
• Abstract (150 words)
• Introduction (problem statement, aim(s) of the
  paper/
• research question(s), structure of the paper)
• Analysis (data and methods, literature review,
  etc.)
• Results
• Discussion and Conclusions
• References

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Course Material
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Bibliography in Natural Resources and
Environmental Economics

• Pfaff and Stavins' bibliography provides an
  excellent
• overview of the discipline
• Readings in the field of Natural Resource
  Environmental Economics
• by
• Alexander S.P. Pfaff, Columbia University
• Robert N. Stavins, Harvard University
• http//papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id
  168969

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Resource vs. Environmental Economics
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Development of Resource- and Environmental
Economics

• 1) classical economics (Adam Smith (1723-1790),
  Thomas Malthus (1766-1834), David Ricardo
  (1772-1823) und John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)).
• 2) neo-classical economics (Marginal Value
  Theory), Jevons, Menger, Walras (general
  equilibrium theory), Marshall (paritial
  equilibrium theory), Keynes,...
• 3) welfare economics (Use of an ethical criteria
  that is mainly based on utilitarian philosophy,
  David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill) gt
  Social Welfare function. Marshall (1890) and
  Pigou (1920) provide the 1. systematic analysis
  on environmental pollution.
• 4) ecological economics (80ies, a group of
  economists and ecologists think that an
  inter-disciplinary, holistic approach is
  necessary to understand the Res-Env-complexity)
  gt ecosystem gt household approaches the
  economic system is part of a bigger system planet
  earth (Spaceship Earth by Kenneth Boulding, 1966).