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.
| Paper title | Environmental Economics |
|---|---|
| Paper code | ECON207 |
| Subject | Economics |
| EFTS | 0.15 |
| Points | 18 points |
| Teaching period | Semester 1 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees (NZD) | $912.00 |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Prerequisite
- BSNS 104 or BSNS 113
- 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
- More information link
- View more information about ECON 207
- 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.
- 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
