Courses Taught

EC 491: Economics of Global Climate Change

Global climate change is the most significant global externality facing human society today. Anthropogenic contributions to greenhouse gases (GHG) can potentially lead to disasters of tremendous magnitude. This course explores the economics of global climate change, with an emphasis on the economic theory and analytical methodologies necessary to understand the challenges of and solutions to climate change.

EC 450: Economics of Environmental Policy

In this course, we study the economic principles of pollution control and environmental policy. The course is divided into three main parts of unequal length. Part I covers environmental externalities and market failure, and demonstrates why intervention, mainly government intervention, is needed. Part II deals with the different forms of government regulation to correct environmental externalities, mechanisms based on bargaining between polluters and victims, and informal regulation including information and voluntary approaches. Part III focuses on transboundary pollution, for which polluters and victims fall under different jurisdictions. A prominent example is global climate change. We discuss the inefficiencies of Nash equilibrium and the design of international environmental agreements to reduce transboundary pollution.

Graduate level courses

• Microeconomic theory (PhD core)

• Mathematics for economists

• Environmental economics

• Natural resource economics

• Special topics on real option theory