Studying at York
Environmental & Natural Resource Economics - ENV00044H
Module summary
This module develops students’ knowledge and understanding of major areas in natural resource, environmental and ecological economics, covering a wide range of subjects from the economics of environmental regulation, the economics of natural resource use, and environmental valuation of the benefits of nature protection. It has been structured to balance theory, applications and case studies.
Related modules
Pre-requisite modules
Co-requisite modules
- None
Prohibited combinations
- None
Additional information
An undergraduate module on microeconomic principles would be suitable as pre-requisite.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Autumn Term 2022-23 to Spring Term 2022-23 |
Module aims
This module deals with all the major areas of natural resources and environmental economics. It will cover (1) evaluation of public environmental projects, (2) economic valuation of non-marketed ecosystem services, (3) the economics of renewable and non-renewable natural resources, and (4) environmental regulation. The module will show economic principles, reasoning and techniques to value ecosystem services, and techniques to address renewable natural resource management problems, and regulatory tools to deal with pollution control, climate change, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable fisheries. Ecological economic approaches for evaluating environmental impacts of economic activities and policies will also be addressed. The module provides the fundamentals analysis for continued undergraduate studies at a higher level or graduate studies of environmental economics.
Module learning outcomes
At the end of the course, successful students will have:
- A greater appreciation of the economic analysis behind the choice of environmental policy instruments in a range of issues (fisheries, pollution, climate change, biodiversity..).
- An increased understanding of the conceptual frameworks for environmental valuation.
- An improved ability to apply revealed and stated preference methods for valuing non-market environmental goods.
- A sound knowledge on the central concepts and theories in natural resource use.
- An improved ability to interpret economic analysis of natural renewable resource management.
- Learn about consumption-based accounting to incorporate production-related environmental impacts into policy decision-making.
Module content
The general contents of the course, and the sequence of topics are as follows:
Block I: Environmental regulation
Criteria for evaluating environmental policy instruments, efficient emission: from statics to dynamics, stock pollutants, regulation with unknown control costs.
Block II: Environmental valuation techniques
Theoretical basis for valuing non-marketed environmental goods and services, contingent valuation, choice experiments, random utility travel cost, production function approaches, benefit transfer, and deliberative valuation.
Block III: Natural Resource Management: water, fisheries and forest economics
Dynamics of socially efficient renewable resource management, harvesting and species extinction, bioeconomic fishery policies, multiple-use forestry, land use decisions.
Block IV: Natural resources at the macro-level
The money system and the environment, material flow accounting, input-output models, and footprinting.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 40 |
| Essay/coursework | 40 |
| Oral presentation/seminar/exam | 20 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
Students will be given the opportunity to hand-in a 1-page outline of their essays in advance of their final submission in order to gain formative feedback on their progress. Informal group-discussion of relevant papers will provide opportunity for formative assessment.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 40 |
| Essay/coursework | 40 |
| Oral presentation/seminar/exam | 20 |
Module feedback
Four week turn-around time on write-up. Feedback is via a written feedback sheet showing comments by markers.
Indicative reading
Conrad, J., (2010) Resource Economics. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press.
Hanley, N., Barbier E. (2009) Pricing Nature. Cost benefit Analysis and Environmental Policy.
Kolstad C.D. (2011) Environmental Economics. 2nd edition. Oxford University Press.
Perman M.A., et al (2011) Natural Resource and Environmental Economics. 4th edition. Pearson.