SDG Detail

ENVP 8213Economics for Environmental Policy I

Postgraduate course

Project description

The objective of Microeconomics and Policy Analysis I is to ensure that students are able to use an economic framework to analyze environmental policy choices. Students will be expected to understand, apply and critique micro-economic models that inform environmental policy. By the end of the semester, students will be expected to use economic concepts fluently to advocate various public policy positions. We will begin with the big picture; how did economics evolve, what is a capitalist economy, and how do we think about it. We will then focus on tools for understanding core institutions such markets, individual workers and consumers, and firms. We describe simple supply-demand relationships and apply these to economic problems. We introduce the concepts of opportunity cost and choice, which are fundamental to an economic framework for environmental policy. We then examine basic tools used by economists. We examine in detail the underlying theory of consumers and producers necessary to derive supply and demand relationships. This detailed analysis facilitates an intelligent application and critique of these basic economic tools. We will incorporate environmental examples throughout the class, but this is not a class on environmental economics. It will introduce you to microeconomics more generally, and give you a view of the economy interacting with lots of other political, social, and environmental factors.