COURSE SYLLABUS 
FREC 444 -- Economics of Environmental Management

Spring Semester, 2002 
MWF 10:10--11:00AM, Gore 308

Instructor: John Mackenzie
Office: Townsend 215.
Office phone: 302-831-1312.   Ofice fax: (302) 831-6243
Home phone: 302-453-0859.   Cell: 303-373-3723
Office Hours: TBA
e-mail: johnmack@udel.edu

Grading:

  • Project 1: Nonmarket valuation (40 percent)--will be revised!
  • Project 2: Related-market valution (40 percent)
  • Final paper or 2002 exam (20 percent).

    •      		 Mind-expanding books of varying relevance to the course:
    • Jared Diamond Guns, Germs and Steel and/or The Third Chimpanzee 
    • Karen Armstrong A History of God and/or The Battle for God and/or Holy War
    • Todd Buchholz & Martin Feldstein New Ideas from Dead Economists
    • Steven Landsberg The Armchair Economist

      •  
    • Richard Light Making the Most of College

    Textbook:  Tietenberg, Tom.  Environmental Economcis & Policy 3rd ed. (2001) Addison-Wesley Longman.  (Note: this is pretty much the same book as Tietenberg's Environmental & Resource Economics which is used in FREC 424, so if you already have that text, you can skip buying this one.)

    This course addresses four questions:

    The course surveys criteria for evaluating environmental policies; tests several techniques for estimating economic values of environmental amenities; and analyzes market and government failures that yield sub-optimal policy outcomes.  We then critique specific policies on air pollution, water quality, toxic wastes, solid waste management, land use and biodiversity.  We conclude with a review of international economic and equity issues associated with ozone depletion and global warming, and summarize recent attempts to resolve these.

    Class Schedule

    1. W February 6: background quiz, quiz answers and introduction
    2. F February 8: micro theory review: quiz and answers; what is environmental economics?
    3. M February 11: the economy and the environment
    4. W February 13: theory foundations -- demand
    5. F February 15: theory foundations -- supply
    6. M: February 18: intro to regression, parts 1, 2 and 3.
    7. W February 20: introduction; the "Dismal Science" Malthus, Ricardo, Hardin
    8. F February 22: sustainability
    9. M Febuary 25: market failures
    10. W February 27: quantifying environmental benefits--non-market methods
    11. F March 1: extensions of CVM; validity
    12. M March 4: the Coase Theorem and transactions costs
    13. W March 6: economics of litigation | primer on public choice theory
    14. F March 8: conjoint analysis demo
    15. M March 11: quantifying environmental benefits--market-based methods
    16. W March 13: hedonic models
    17. F March 15: catch-up
    18. M March 18: travel-cost models
    19. W March 20: discounting | benefit-cost analysis
    20. F March 22: conjoint survey design
    21. M March 25: classical theory of government, the social contract and democracy | communism and fascism
    22. W March 27: government and prosperity: Olson, etc.
    23. F March 29:  voting systems and Arrow's Impossibility Theorem

      24. --------  spring break April 1-5  -------
    24. M April 8: conjoint exercise
    25. W April 10: environmental policy basics
    26. F April 12: survey execution
    27. M April 15: no class -- survey execution
    28. W April 17: command-and-control policies: standards and enforcement
    29. F April 19: survey data compilation
    30. M April 22: incentive-based policies: emission taxes, abatement subsidies, transferable discharge permits
    31. W April 24:  water pollution
    32. F April 26: lab session--data analysis
    33. M April 29: GIS-based management of non-point runoff and editorial
    34. W May 1: air pollution
    35. F May 3  lab session--data analysis
    36. M May 6:  more air pollution
    37. W May 8: toxics
    38. F May 10: project write-up
    39. M May 13: endangered species
    40. W May 15: course wrap-up