The course will focus on the issues of sustainable development, the environment, and natural resources. The objective is to introduce students to foundational issues in the analysis of environmental economics and policy through a survey of broad topics, with opportunities for students to delve more deeply into topics of their own personal interests.

For each class, read the readings in the required section in detail and be prepared to answer questions about them. Optional but recommended readings are generally long articles or books and can be browsed for sections of particular interest. In the choose one section, either choose one paper to read in detail or read the introductions of 2-3 articles depending on your personal interests. Slides are linked below.

Course assessment will consist of an 'Intervention Report' for an existing or proposed environmental policy or intervention. The report should take the form of a cost-benefit analysis advising a policymaker or NGO as to whether the policy should be implemented. The report should outline the problem that the policy aims to solve, summarize the research that is relevant to understanding the effects of this policy, document key assumptions necessary to evaluate the policy, add up costs and benefits of the policy, and highlight what uncertainties remain and how sensitive results are to these uncertainties. Givewell's intervention reports linked here are a good guide as to what we are looking for. Final papers should be 2000 words (roughly 4 pages), and include a clearly documented spreadsheet with the cost-benefit analysis. Final version of the papers is expected by April 1st. 

Feb 4: Coase and Voluntary Approaches: slides

The Coase theorem argues that externalities can often be managed in a decentralized way. Even when the assumptions don't hold, it can be a useful analytical framework. We will apply it to study payment for ecosystem services type programs including carbon offsets. We will also briefly touch on theories of green consumerism and corporate social responsibility.

Required Readings: 

• Kotchen (2013). Voluntary- and Information-Based Approaches to Environmental Management: A Public Economics Perspective. REEP. 

• Deryugina, Moore and Tol (2021). Environmental Applications of the Coase Theorem. Environmental Science and Policy.

Optional but recommended:

• Coase (1960). The Problem of Social Cost. Journal of Law and Economics.

Choose (at least) one:

• Jayachandran et al (2017). Cash for carbon: A randomized trial of payments for ecosystem services to reduce deforestation. Science.

• Jack, Jayachandra, Kala, and Panda. Money (Not) to Burn: Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Crop Residue Burning. AER: Insights 

• Bushnell (2011) The Economics of Carbon Offsets. NBER.

• Dragusanu, Giovannucci, and Nunn (2014). The Economics of Fair Trade. JEP.

• Alfaro-Urena et al (2022). Responsible Sourcing? Theory and Evidence from Costa Rica. NBER Working Paper.

Feb 11: Regulation and Non Market Valuation: slides

How can we measure the benefits of environmental amenities or the costs of pollution? How should we use these measures in policymaking? I will cover stated and revealed preference methods including contingent valuation, hedonics, and bottom up/reduced form approaches. I will connect these techniques to social welfare theory and distributional issues.

Required Readings: 

• Sunstein (2024). The Economic Constitution of the United States. JEP.

• Hahn et al (2024). A Welfare Analysis of Policies Impacting Climate Change. Working Paper.

• Carleton and Greenstone (2022). A Guide to Updating the US Government’s Social Cost of Carbon. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy. 

Choose (at least) one:

• Carleton et al (2022). Valuing the Global Mortality Consequences of Climate Change Accounting for Adaptation Costs and Benefits. QJE.

• Keiser and Shapiro (2018). Consequences of the Clean Water Act and the Demand for Water Quality. QJE.

• Taylor, Charles A. and Hannah Druckenmiller (2022). Wetlands, Flooding, and the Clean Water Act. AER.

• Deryugina et al (2019). The Mortality and Medical Costs of Air Pollution: Evidence from Changes in Wind Direction. AER.

• Carson (2012). Contingent Valuation: A Practical Alternative when Prices Aren’t Available. Journal of Economic Perspectives.

• Banzhaf, Ma, and Timmins (2019). Environmental Justice: The Economics of Race, Place, and Pollution. JEP.

Feb 18: Sustainability and Natural Resources: slides

How can we define sustainability? How can we measure whether we are achieving it? This class will cover the dynamics of inter-temporal environmental decision making, and implications for management of natural resources, with applications to forestry, fisheries, and biodiversity.

Required Readings: 

• Arrow et al. (2004). Are We Consuming Too Much. JEP.

• Ostrom (2009). Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems. Nobel Prize Lecture.

Optional but recommended:

• Dasgupta (2021).  The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review. HM Treasury.

Choose (at least) one:

• Taylor and Weder (2023). On the Economics of Extinction and Mass Extinctions. JEP.

• Frank and Sudarshan (2023). The Social Costs of Keystone Species Collapse: Evidence From The Decline of Vultures in India. AER

• Raynor, Grainer, and Parker (2021). Wolves make roadways safer, generating large economic returns to predator conservation. PNAS.

• Foster and Rosenzweig (2003). Economic Growth and the Rise of Forests. QJE.

• Lemoine (2017). Green Expectations: Current Effects of Anticipated Carbon Pricing. Restat.

• Fenichel (2014). Natural Capital: From Metaphor to Measurement. JAERE.


• Millner and Heal (2023). Choosing the Future: Markets, Ethics, and Rapprochement in Social Discounting. JEL.

March 4: Environment, Development, and Technology: slides

To what extent are environment and development goals in tension with each other? What are the causes of poor environmental quality in low-income countries? This class will cover theories of the Malthusian Traps, Environmental Kuznets Curve, Pollution Havens, and environmentally biased technological change.

Required Readings: 

• Greenstone and Jack (2015). Envirodevonomics: A Research Agenda for an Emerging Field. JEL.

• Oehlsen (2024). Philanthropic Cause Prioritization. JEP.

Optional but recommended:


• Givewell Intervention Reports: https://www.givewell.org/research/research-on-programs

• Mann (2018). The Wizard and the Prophet. 

Choose (at least) one:

• Moscona and Sastry (2023). Inappropriate Technology: Evidence from Global Agriculture. AER.

• Gollin et al (2021). Two Blades of Grass: The Impact of the Green Revolution. JPE.

• Hansen and Wingender (2023). National and Global Impacts of Genetically Modified Crops. AER: Insights.

• Levinsohn (2023). Are Developed Countries Outsourcing Pollution? JEP.

• Tanaka, Teshima, and Verhoogen (2022). North-South Displacement Effects of Environmental Regulation: The Case of Battery Recycling. AER: Insights.

• Glennerster and Jayachandran (2023). Think Globally, Act Globally: Opportunities to Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. JEP.

• Berkouwer and Dean (2022). Credit, Attention, and Externalities in the Adoption of Energy Efficient Technologies by Low-Income Households. AER.

Class 1: Air Pollution: Welfare and Distribution: slides

How can we estimate the harms of air pollution? What are the costs of addressing air pollution? What are the distributional effects of policies to address air pollution? How should we use estimates of the above to inform policy? This lecture also serves as an introduction to recognizing and interpreting descriptive, structural, and reduced form papers.

Required Readings:

• Greenstone et al - Can Pollution Markets Work in Developing Countries? Experimental Evidence from India - Forthcoming QJE

• Hernandez-Cortes and Meng - Do Environmental Markets Cause Environmental Injustice? Evidence from California’s Carbon Market - JPubE - 2022

Choose One:

• Jack et al - Money (Not) to Burn: Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Crop Residue Burning - Forthcoming AER: Insights

• Deryugina et al - The Mortality and Medical Costs of Air Pollution: Evidence from Changes in Wind Direction - AER 2019

• Chay and Greenstone - Does Air Quality Matter? Evidence from the Housing Market - JPE 2005

• Currie, Voorheis, and Walker - What Caused Racial Disparities in Particulate Exposure to Fall? New Evidence from the Clean Air Act and Satellite-Based Measures of Air Quality - AER 2023

• Sager and Singer - Clean Identification? The Effects of the Clean Air Act on Air Pollution, Exposure Disparities, and House Prices - Forthcoming AEJ: EP

Class 2: Risk, Insurance, and Natural Disasters: slides

How do individuals and communities insure against environmental risks like natural disasters? What kind of policies encourage adaptation (or maladaptation)?

Required Readings:

• Deryugina, Kawano and Levitt - The Economic Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Its Victims: Evidence from Individual Tax Returns - AEJ: Applied 2018

• Burlig et al - Long-range forecasts as climate adaptation: Experimental evidence from developing-country agriculture - Working paper

Choose One:

• Munshi and Rosenzweig - Networks and Misallocation: Insurance, Migration and the Rural-Urban Wage Gap - AER 2016

• Gadenne et al - In-Kind Transfers as Insurance - AER 2024

• Gordon et al - Targeting Disaster Aid: A Structural Evaluation of a Large Earthquake Reconstruction Program - Working Paper

• Wagner - Adaptation and Adverse Selection in Markets for Natural Disaster Insurance - AEJ: EP 2021

• Hsiao - Sea Level Rise and Urban adaptation in Jakarta - Working Paper

• Molina and Rudik - The Social Value of Hurricane Forecasts - Working Paper

Class 3: Climate change: Estimating Damages with Adaptation: slides

What are (some of) the effects of climate change? How can we use estimates of the damages of climate change to inform policy?

Required Readings: 

• Carleton et al - Valuing the Global Mortality Consequences of Climate Change Accounting for Adaptation Costs and Benefits - QJE 2022

• Nath - Climate Change, The Food Problem, and the Challenge of Adaptation through Sectoral Reallocation - Forthcoming JPE

Choose One:

• Barreca et al - Adapting to Climate Change: The Remarkable Decline in the US Temperature-Mortality Relationship over the Twentieth Century - JPE 2016

• Annan and Schlenker - Federal Crop Insurance and the Disincentive to Adapt to Extreme Heat - AER 2015

• McGuirk and Nunn - Transhuman Pastoralism, Climate Change and Conflict in Africa - Restud 2024

• Cruz and Rossi Hansberg - The Economic Geography of Global Warming - Restud 2023

• Burke et al - Are We Adapting to Climate Change - NBER Working Paper

• Bilal and Kanzig - The Macroeconomic Impact of Climate Change: Global vs. Local Temperature - NBER Working Paper

• Slides on satellite data and measurement error for SIPA Summer School

• Newsletters and mailing lists:

  • ResEcon listserv - lots of job postings, resources, calls for papers focused on Environment

  • NBER working papers - general interest, all fields

  • STEG newsletter - Funding and working papers in Development/Growth

  • JPAL newsletter - Development/field experiments/RCTs

  • Non-academic: Carbon Brief, Givewell, Marginal Revolution, Future Perfect

• Some conferences I've enjoyed that are good for students to apply to: 

  • AERE Summer Conference - biggest US conference for environmental economists

  • Camp Resources (North Carolina) - Environmental econ conference focused on students and juniors

  • OSWEET (online) - virtual weekly seminar series

  • Columbia IPWSD (NYC) - sustainable development workshop for students organized by students

  • BioEcon - Fun conference focusing on resource economics

  • Occasional Workshop (California) - Great papers in environmental econ, and egg-timers for students

  • LSE Environment Week (London) - Week-long environmental econ conference with great academics and policy makers

  • CU Environmental & Resource Economics Workshop (Colorado) - Good environment workshop focused on students and early-career scholars 

  • Northeast Workshop (Northeast US) - Great papers in environmental econ, and egg-timers for students

  • EAYE - Annual conference for young economists in Europe

• Other useful links:

  • Ideas for impactful research: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/social-science-research-topics-for-global-health-and-wellbeing/ 

  • For better writing: https://hemingwayapp.com/

  • For lit reviews: https://www.connectedpapers.com/