Econ 308: The Political Economy of the Environment

This course examines the political economy of the environment. It addresses environmental protection and environmental degradation, including both pollution and natural resource depletion. In addition to the neoclassical economic question of how scarce resources are allocated among competing ends, this course explores the political economy question of how resources are allocated among competing individuals, groups, and classes.

This online course is based on the brick-and-mortar course that Prof. Boyce teaches at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst. This intensive six-week course strives to exploit the opportunities of its online format. You will study the political economy of the environment though readings, video lectures, and films.

You will have readings assigned for Monday through Thursday each week. You will watch a 5-10 minute lecture by Prof. Boyce summarizing some of the main themes of the week. You will also watch a 5-10 minute technical lecture to help prepare you for the issues and problems in your problem sets. I will grade your participation in six discussion forums and your performance on five short problem sets and a final paper.

• There will be a discussion forum each week. You must post your essay by Wednesday, and post a response to two of your classmates’ posts by Friday.

• There will be a problem set due on Fridays for the first five weeks of the course. Please upload your work as .pdf documents. You may create any graphs or images digitally (using MS Powerpoint or similar) or by hand (using a scanner or camera to put the images into your document).

• There will be a 1,500-2,500 word paper due on the last day of the course on a topic of your choice. You must submit your paper topic and key sources the second week of the course. For details, see the Final Paper Assignment.

Books

We will use three books. To succeed in this course, you must have access to all three books.

• Eban S. Goodstein, Economics and the Environment. 6th edition.

• James K. Boyce, Economics, the Environment and Our Common Wealth. Northampton, MA:

  Edward Elgar, 2013.

• Frank Ackerman, Can We Afford the Future? London: Zed Books, 2009.

  You should immediately obtain a copy of Goodstein’s text. It is widely available, and used copies of the 6th edition sell for about $20 online. The books by Boyce and Ackerman are also affordable, though you may choose to borrow the e-books from the UMass-Amherst library.

  Prerequisites

  This course is designed for students who have completed Economics 103 or Resource Economics

102. We will use algebra to graph lines, find intersections, and calculate areas. Many students who take the Political Economy of the Environment as juniors or seniors learned their math in high school or at the beginning of college, so it's normal if your math skills are rusty. If you are struggling with the math in this course, please contact me immediately, so I can help you strengthen your skills.

Your final grade will be based on your performance in online discussions, problem sets, and a final paper. Your final score will be weighted as follows:

•   30% six online discussions

•   50% five problem sets

•   20% one final paper

  You must complete your posts in the discussion forums on time. Late posts and responses will receive 0 points, because timely posts are essential to keep the conversation going. Late problem sets will be docked by one letter grade for every day they are late. A late final paper will also be docked one letter grade for every day it is late.

  Your final letter grade will be based on the following cutoffs:

  Grade Cutoff

A 93

A- 90

B+ 87

B 83

B- 80

C+ 77

C 73

C- 70

D+ 67

D 60

Throughout the course, you can see your “current grade” in Blackboard. It is based on a weighted average of all assignments for which you have a grade.

All the readings, lectures, discussions, and problem sets are organized into six modules. The due dates for all assignments are also available in the course calendar.

Questions

If you have questions about the material or the course site, please post them in the “Questions about the class” forum. That way, my answers will be available for everyone in the class. If you want to ask me a private question, please send me an email. I will respond to posts and email regularly during the week. If you ask a question on the weekend, I may not respond until Monday morning.

2

Please review the schedule below

1 The political 1 economy of the

environment 2

Boyce Ch. 1 on the political economy of the environment
Goodstein Ch. 1-2 on utilitarianism and externalities

Watch:

 Prof. Boyce Lecture 1: Introduction to the Political Economy of the Environment;

 Technical Lecture 1: Externalities, efficiency, and inequality

 Prof. Boyce Lecture 2: Sustainability and growth

 Week 1 Discussion Problem Set 1 due

 Week 2 Discussion  Problem Set 2 due  Final Paper

Proposal
 Week 3 Discussion

 Problem Set 3 due  Week 4 Discussion

 Problem Set 4 due  Week 5 Discussion

 Problem Set 5 due  Week 6 Discussion

 Final Paper due

3. 3  Goodstein Ch. 3-4 on efficiency and safety standards

4. 4  Boyce Ch. 2 on inequality and efficiency

2. 2  Sustainability and 5 growth 6

3. 3  Benefit-cost 9 analysis and 10 environmental 11

Watch the Gasland (film)

Goodstein Ch.

7. 7  Goodstein Ch.

8. 8  Goodstein Ch.

6
7 Technical lecture 2: Social welfare

justice

Goodstein Ch. Goodstein Ch. Goodstein Ch.

11 and Boyce 2013 post 8

9 10

functions

 Prof. Boyce Lecture 3: Benefit-cost analysis and environmental justice

 Technical Lecture 3: Benefit-cost analysis and environmental justice

 Prof. Boyce Lecture 4: Environmental regulation

Technical Lecture 4: Incentive-Based

12 Boyce Ch. 3-4

4 Regulating 13 pollution 14

Goodstein Ch.

12-13
14-15
16  17

Goodstein Ch.

15. 15  Goodstein Ch.

16. 16  Goodstein Ch.

Regulation

•   Prof. Boyce Lecture 5: Climate Change

•   Technical Lecture 5: Carbon tax and

  carbon cap

  Boyce Lecture 6: Globalization and the environment

5 Climate change 17

18. 18  second third of Ackerman

19. 19  third third of Ackerman

20. 20  Boyce Ch. 6

first third of Ackerman

6 Globalization and 21 development 22

Murder in the Amazon (film)

Boyce Ch. 8
23 Goodstein Ch. 20

24 Boyce Ch. 9 and Summers' 1992 memo