Environmental Economics 1:

Resource Economics and Environmental Policy

The lecture course will start with an overview of the different concepts of sustainability that are discussed in the economics literature as well as in practical environmental policy. Then the economic reasons for the failure of a market economy to ensure sustainability without government intervention will be scrutinized. Afterwards various instruments of environmental policy will be analysed under the aspect of their suitability to cope with market failure in a national and an international context.

Further, the problem of a sustainable use of natural resources over time will be discussed on the basis of different intertemporal resource models. The theoretical discussion will be illustrated using examples of practical environmental policy. Another special topic of this course will be the international aspects of successful environmental protection.

An accompanying exercise course offers students the opportunity to get a deeper understanding of the topics dealt with in the lecture course by solving numerical exercises and discussing case studies.