Syllabus

University of California, San Diego Fall Quarter 2008
Department of Economics Professor T. Groves

University of California, San Diego	Fall Quarter 2008
Department of Economics	Professor T. Groves

Economics 131: Environmental Economics

Syllabus and Reading List

Course Overview

This course is an introduction to an economics perspective of environmental systems and their problems, with special attention to the use, misuse, and overuse of natural and environmental resources.

The first part of the course will develop appropriate economic concepts, models, and tools for analyzing environmental and natural resource issues and problems. The second part of the course will discuss the efficient use of depletable and renewable natural resources such as oil, gas, land, water, forests, and fisheries. The third part of the course will explore the particular problems arising from the use of environmental resources such as the air, rivers, lakes, and the oceans as repositories for pollution.

Throughout the course we will consider the separate and complementary roles of markets and governments in allocating and regulating the use of environmental and natural resources.

Lectures and Class Room

The course lectures during the Fall Quarter will be Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 2:00 - 3:20 a.m., in Pepper Canyon Hall 106. In addition, weekly sections will be held at times and places to be announced.

TA's, Sections, and Office Hours

There are xxx T.A.'s for the course: Mr. Ben Gilbert and Mr. xxxx xxxxx. They will hold sections and office hours at times to be announced. The sections will be used to go over pre-requisite economics material, questions arising from the lectures, and, especially exam-type questions that will be posed from time to time during the lectures or posted on the UCSD WebCT class website. All instructors' office hours will be posted on the class website. Please take advantage of office hours and also use e-mail to contact any instructor at other times or if you need to make an appointment.

Please use WebCT for all course-related e-mail. E-mail sent to other addresses (e.g. my official UCSD account) may not receive a timely response. You must be logged into WebCT to send e-mail to WebCT mailboxes.

Exams and Grading

Your grade for this course will depend on a Mid-Term Exam (35%) to be given on WEDNESDAY, October 27, from 5:00 - 6:20 pm and a Final Exam (65%) to be given on THURSDAY, December 11 from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. The exams will consist of questions similar (but not identical) to the exam-type problems mentioned above.

Textbook and other Readings

The textbook for this course is Tom Tietenberg & Lynne Lewis, Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Eighth Edition, Boston:Pearson Addison Wesley, 2009.

This textbook is extremely comprehensive and exhaustive (maybe even exhausting!). The course lectures will help you navigate the readings. While not all chapters will be assigned, even those chapters that are assigned contain vast amounts of information, not all of which will be emphasized equally. Regular attendance of lectures will make it easier for you to read the assigned chapters more efficiently.

In addition to the textbook various other readings will also be assigned. Where available in electronic form they will be made available through the course WebCT site (for copyright reasons).