Contents:
This course deals with the efficient and sustainable use of natural resources. The key question is how intensely a resource should be exploited, considering the typical properties of the resource, possible externalities, and future generations. The course deals with nonrenewable resources (e.g. minerals and fossil fuels), renewable resources (forests, ecosystems, and fisheries), and recycling. The course also pays attention to the economic theory of different policy instruments. We will discuss the green paradox, resource extraction taxes, individual transferable quota in fisheries and carbon subsidies in forest management.
Learning outcomes:
After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:
- apply dynamic optimization techniques to management of non-renewable resources (such as fossil fuels and phosphate) and renewable resources (such as forestry, fisheries, and ecosystems);
- analyse economic problems of natural resource use in an intertemporal perspective;
- evaluate economic problems of natural resource use, taking into account concerns of intergenerational equity, sustainability, and discounting;
- understand how institutional dynamics and resource dynamics mutually influence each other in a social-ecological system;
- translate real-world problems into mathematical models.
