Environmental and Ecological Economics

Course Type	Course Code	No. Of Credits
Foundation Core	SHE2ED106	4

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will be aimed at familiarizing students with the existing methodology and approaches in Environmental Economics and Ecological Economics. Environmental Economics focuses largely on market based solutions to environmental problems, mainly through valuation approaches that are able to capture externalities and address market failures. crafting techniques for valuation. Ecological Economics, on the other hand, attempts to displace the centrality of the market in resolving environmental issues.

Building on principles of methodological pluralism, Ecological Economics is able to incorporate ecological, economic, historical, psychological, ethical and philosophical considerations in ad- dressing environmental challenges. The course focuses on interdisciplinary approaches between economics and physical and biological sciences to develop a conceptual framework for ecological economics.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students learn how ecology and environment was conceptualised in various paradigms of eco- nomics and how ideas derived from biological and physical sciences were integrated into them. This approach helps to form an interdisciplinary framework to understand ecological and environmental impact of economic activities. In doing so it develops a strong critique of the market based paradigm and develops a case for institutional and non-market based approaches to environmental problems. Techniques of valuation and integrating natural resources to national income accounting for developing macroeconomic approaches to environmental problems are discussed. Finally, students are familiarised with bioeconomic modelling that facilitated integration of information from ecology and economics to conceptualise options that are described by objective functions.

Course Outline

S. No.	Module
	Introduction to Environmental and Ecological Economics
	Economic and Ecological Systems: Interdependences
	Basic mathematics for Ecological Economics: Derivatives, Elasticity, Optimisation in Excel/R
	Basic Econometrics: Basic Statistics, Hypothesis Testing, Regression in Excel/R
	Economic Concepts and Foundations I: Consumer, Producer, Demand, Supply, Markets, Basic Laws, Equilibrium, Elasticity
	Economic Concepts and Foundations II: Property Rights, Market Failure, Externalities, Public Goods, Open Access Regimes, Missing Markets
	Valuation Theory: Cost-Benefit Analysis, Discounting, Net Present Value, Willingness to Pay, Willingness to Accept
	Applying Economics to Environmental Problems: CDM, PES and REDD+
	Economics of Natural Resources (Theory and Lab Simulations)
	Natural Resource Accounting
	Game Theory and Applications
	Emerging Issues in Ecological Economics: Wildlife, Economy, Green GDP, Climate, Invasives

INDICATIVE READING LIST

Common, M., & Stagl, S. (2005). Ecological Economics: An Introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Conrad, J. M. (2010). Resource Economics (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Daly, H. E., & Farley, J. (2011). Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications (2nd ed.). London: Island Press.
Dougherty, C. (2007). Introduction to econometrics (3rd ed.). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Gujarati, D. N. (2003). Basic Econometrics (4th ed.). New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Maddala, G. G., & Lahiri, K. (2009). Introduction to Econometrics (4th ed.). New Delhi: Wiley.
Tietenberg, T. & Lewis, L. (2012). Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (9th ed.). Delhi: Pearson.