Red X iconGreen tick iconYellow tick icon

    Overview

    An introduction to the economic analysis of environmental problems associated with the use of depletable and renewable resources; policy instruments for dealing with such problems.

    Why did the New Zealand Government introduce a National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management in 2020 instead of tradable water rights or taxes? Can you put a monetary value on the Department of Conservation’s Great Walks? Who should get the economic rent from mining for rare earth metals used in batteries and smart phones?

    The objective of ECON 207 is to provide you with an understanding of key environmental issues from an economic perspective. By building on the microeconomic concepts and tools introduced in the prerequisite paper, we will analyse such issues as: valuing the environment, cost-benefit analysis, depletable resource allocation, water, fisheries, forests, ecosystem goods and services, pollution and climate change.

    About this paper

    Paper title Environmental Economics
    Subject Economics
    EFTS 0.15
    Points 18 points
    Teaching period Semester 1 (On campus)
    Domestic Tuition Fees ( NZD ) $937.50
    International Tuition Fees Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website.
    Prerequisite
    One of BSNS 104, BSNS 113 or PTWY 111
    Restriction
    PLAN 414
    Schedule C
    Arts and Music, Commerce, Science
    Eligibility

    Students taking this paper should be familiar with these concepts and models: supply-demand, marginal benefit/cost, externalities, etc. We will employ some basic maths, but most of the analysis in the paper will be done with the aid of graphs.

    Contact
    economics@otago.ac.nz
    Teaching staff

    Co-ordinator and lecturer: Viktoria Kahui

    Paper Structure
    • Revision of key economic concepts relevant for environmental economics
    • Weekly topics such as valuation of the environment, cost-benefit analysis, water, etc.
    Textbooks

    Tietenberg & Lewis (2018). Environmental & Natural Resource Economics, 11th edition, Pearson.

    Course outline

    View the course outline for ECON 207

    Graduate Attributes Emphasised
    Global perspective, Critical thinking, Ethics, Environmental literacy, Information literacy, Research.
    View more information about Otago's graduate attributes.
    Learning Outcomes

    Students who successfully complete this course will have:

    • Improved understanding of how and why the market system sometimes fails to allocate some natural and produced resources efficiently
    • Improved ability to identify and evaluate the methods available to governments, businesses and households to improve allocative efficiency, while taking wider societal impacts into consideration

    Timetable

    Semester 1

    Location
    Dunedin
    Teaching method
    This paper is taught On Campus
    Learning management system
    Blackboard

    Lecture

    Stream Days Times Weeks
    Attend
    L1 Monday 16:00-16:50 9-13, 15-22
    Tuesday 11:00-11:50 9-13, 15-22
    Thursday 16:00-16:50 9-13, 15-16, 18-22
    Back to top