99905 - Topics in the Valutation of Environmental Goods and Services

Learning outcomes

The purpose of this course is to use topics of current interest in environmental and resource economics, which cover theoretical approaches, applications and policy design, to further enhance the ability of students to analyze and present these issues. The course builds mainly, but not exclusively, on the material of courses such as “The Economics of Climate Change” and "The Economics of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services" for the selection of the specific topics. Topics related to frontier research and policy issues in environmental and resource economics, along with new approaches such as the current development of epidemic-economic models, or the link between competition policy and sustainability, will be introduced, and the students will be asked to prepare an essay which will be presented in class. The objective is twofold: first to provide students the opportunity to conduct deeper analysis on issues which could be useful for advanced research or applied policy, and second to enhance their ability to present these complex issues to an audience.

Course contents

Topics in the Valuation of Environmental Goods and Services

Overview: The purpose of this course is to use topics of current interest in environmental and resource economics – which cover theoretical approaches, applications and policy design – to enhance the ability of students to analyze and present these issues. The course builds mainly, but not exclusively, on the material from the courses “The Economics of Climate Change” and “The Economics of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services” for the selection of the specific topics. Topics related to frontier research and policy issues in environmental and resource economics, along with new approaches such as the current development of epidemic-economic models or the link between competition policy and sustainability, will be introduced. Students will be asked to prepare and submit a written essay which they will also present to the class. The final grade for the course will be based on the quality of the essay and the presentation.

The course objective is twofold: first, to provide students the opportunity to conduct deeper analysis on issues which could be useful for advanced research or applied policy; and second, to enhance students’ ability to present these complex issues in both written and oral formats.

Topics to be analyzed:

1. Valuation and climate change: The social cost of carbon (SCC)

a. Estimating SCC when the impact is on GDP levels

b. Estimating SCC when the impact is on GDP growth

c. Tipping points and the estimation of SCC

d. Spatial analysis and the estimation of SCC

2. Adaptation to climate change as a public good

3. Infectious diseases and climate change

4. Climate change and financial markets

5. Biodiversity valuation using

a. Diversity functions

b. Value functions

c. Real options

6. Biodiversity hot spots and bioprospecting

7. Payments for ecosystem services in the developing world: Evaluation of alternative policy rules

8. Competition policy and sustainability

Structure: There will be a short review of the above topics in the first class-meeting. Students will then declare a topic with the professor and begin working on their essay. The sequence of presentations will be decided at the second class-meeting. Presentations will take place during the last two class-meetings.

Format:

· The essay should be between 4,000 and 5,000 words long (not including tables and graphs), and should follow the standard format of Title page, Introduction, Body, Conclusion and List of References. Any of the commonly used writing styles for economics (e.g., APA, Chicago) can be used to format the essay, the text citations, and the List of References.

· The presentations should be prepared using PowerPoint or Beamer and should be about 15 minutes long. An additional 5 minutes will be devoted to questions following the presentation.

· Two files, the written essay and the presentation, should be submitted electronically by 18/12/2022 at 24:00. The files should be named as follows: “Last name_First Initial_99905” and sent by email to: anastasio.xepapadeas@unibo.it.

Reading materials: Students should begin by consulting the relevant readings used in the courses “The Economics of Climate Change” and "The Economics of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services”. Students should then supplement these sources with additional material to broaden their knowledge of their specific topic.

Important note: All text that is part of someone else’s research work should be properly acknowledged using citations.

Readings/Bibliography

Relevant readings used in the courses “The Economics of Climate Change” and "The Economics of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services” and supplementary readings provided during the classes.

Teaching methods

Short review of the proposed essay topics and essay presentation.

Assessment methods

The final grade for the course will be based on the quality of the essay and the presentation.

The maximum possible score is 30 cum laude

The grade is graduated as follows:

<18 failed
18-23 sufficient
24-27 good
28-30 very good
30 e lode excellent

Teaching tools

Presentations of the proposed essay topics and discussions with students during the development of the essays

Office hours

See the website of Anastasios Xepapadeas