Environmental Economics

Semester 3

M2 APE

Katheline Schuber, Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline

This is a course on natural resources economics (Part 1, Katheline Schubert) and environmental economics (Part 2, Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline).

Website of the course: https://www.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/fr/formations/masters/ape-analyse-et-politique-economiques/etre-etudiant-ape/

Teacher(s):

Pratical information: S3, 36h, Campus Jourdan, cours du M2 APE.

Syllabus

I. Part I
  • Lecture 1: Non-renewable resources
    1. Scarcity: facts and data
    2. The optimal extraction of a fixed stock of non-renewable resource
    3. The role of market structure
    4. Extensions: exploration and reserve discoveries; technical progress in extraction; the taxation on non-renewable resources (Ramsey and strategic taxation)
    5. Fossil fuels and climate change: facts and data; carbon budget; dynamic Pigouvian taxation; strategic taxation; subsidy to the clean substitute and the Green Paradox.
    6. The energy transition: an economic perspective.
  • Lecture 2: renewable resources
    1. Biological and economic dynamics
    2. Open access
    3. The optimal exploitation of a renewable resource
    4. Applications: fisheries, forests, water, biodiversity
II. Part 2

This part examines the application of economic principles to problems of environmental regulation. After an introduction to the theory of externalities, property rights, and corrective measures, we will examine the use of different pollution control tools like Pigouvian taxes, marketable permits, regulatory standards and subsidies, both in terms of their theoretical properties and practical potential as policy instruments. We will then turn to issues in the design of environmental policy under uncertainty or asymmetric information.