Environmental and Energy Economics
The energy, environment and resource field covers the economics of pollution, renewable and exhaustible resources with a focus on energy. The field covers both theory and empirics, with an emphasis on well identified studies of regulatory cost or benefit.
The first two courses in the field include the fundamentals of resource economics including the classic Hotelling problem, both theory and empirical; optimal control and dynamic programming in a resource context; Pigouvian prices, double dividends, and the Coase theorem; pollution control and enforcement; measuring the value of clean air and clean water; and measuring the costs of clean air and water; electricity supply and demand,the economics of energy and fuel efficiency, decision making under uncertainty and with anticipated learning; climate change policy; hyperbolic discounting; disentangling risk aversion and intertemporal substitutability, and a collection of topics in environmental policy design and implementation (with an emphasis on market-based emissions regulation). The field also includes a third course that presents a much more detailed view of the dynamic issues in resource economics including stock pollutants and climate change.
Reflecting the policy importance of the subject, the faculty is dedicated not only to academic pursuits, but also to policy and to governmental and non-governmental organizations. Similarly, some students prepare to pursue academic careers, while others prefer to work closer to policy makers and projects managers, finding employment in the private and non-profit sectors.
