Descriptif

Course description:
Economics is a powerful tool to think about environmental issues and clarify the associated debates : Is there an optimal amount of pollution ? What regulations should be implemented ? Is economic growth compatible with natural resources preservation ?
The objective of the course is to familiarize students with the way economists analyze environmental issues and environmental policies, it will be based on examples : Climatic Change, Oil depletion, Fishery management, Recycling policies...
Students will learn :
– the main concepts that explain the failure of markets to achieve an efficient use of natural resources;
– the optimal design of policies to reduce pollution (tax, emission permit markets, norms, subsidies) and how to analyze policies actually implemented;
– the determinant of inter-temporal trade-offs (the optimal exploitation of exhaustible and renewable resources, the timing of climate policy);
– how to build a model to think about a particular environmental issue.

Langue du cours : anglais