Instructor: John Mackenzie
office: Trailer B behind Townsend hall
phone: 831-1312
e-mail: johnmack@udel.edu
office hours: Tuesdays 2-4 or by appointment
Text: Tietenberg, Tom. 1996. Environmental & Resource Economics (4th ed.). Scott-Foresman, NY.
Assignments:
Course Objectives:
At the end of this course you should understand how competetive market
processes generally yield efficient allocations of resources through time
and between alternative uses; how various market failures arise and affect
allocative efficiency; and how economic policies can correct for these
failures.
Class Policies
Some assignments require use of a microcomputer spreadsheet program
such as Microsoft Excel. You should be familiar with one of these; if you
are not, sign up for and attend an introductory IT short course on Excel
as soon as possible.
No late work will be accepted for any reason. Assignments must be computer-printed or typed. You are assumed to know the University's policies on academic honesty, which are explained in a leaflet available from the Office of the Dean of Students; these policies will be strictly enforced.
Class Schedule
February 9: introduction;
efficiency, equity and sustainability
February 11: resource/environment
linkages; forecasting the future: pessimists vs. optimists Chs.
1 and 2
February 16: a
taxonomy of market failures: property rights, externalities and public
goods Ch. 3
February 18: the
Coase Theorem; transactions costs; government failure
February 23: welfare measures; discounting
February 25: fundamentals
of benefit/cost analysis; measuring non-market benefits Ch. 4
March 2: economics
of risk; innumeracy
March 4: population
and economic development Ch. 5
March 9: development,
poverty and the environment Ch. 21
March 11: defining
resource reserves; intro to resource allocation models Ch. 6
March 16:
March 18: dynamic
resource allocation models
March 23: more
on exhaustible resources Ch. 7
March 25: energy
markets; the rise and fall of OPEC
* * * * * SPRING BREAK * * * * *
April 6: economics
of recycling and solid waste management Ch. 8
April 8: water
resources: surface and groundwater; allocation doctrines Ch. 9
April 13: optimal water allocation strategies and political impediments
to them.
April 15: agricultural resources: food scarcity hypotheses; price and
production trends; agricultural policies Ch. 10
April 20: forest
resources: single-rotation and multi-rotation models Ch. 11
April 22: economics
of forest depletion in LDC's; biodiversity and global warming; forest protection
April 27: fisheries:
defining optimal yield; depletion of open-access fisheries Ch. 12
April 29: fishery management policies
May 4: resource scarcity reexamined: indicators and trends Ch. 13
May 6: economics of pollution control Ch. 14
May 11: US pollution control policies: water
pollution ;
air
pollution ;
toxic
waste ;
global
pollution issues
May 13: sustainability revisited Ch. 22
May 18: course wrap-up Ch. 23
May 26 (Wednesday): FINAL EXAM, 1:00--3:00 PM