All of our required events are here. And you must attend two of the five special events listed here.
Week 1
Tuesday, February 12
- Introduction to the course
- Father Guido Sarducci’s ‘Five Minute University.’
Thursday, February 14
- Special event #1: “Environmental Risk Communication.” Andrew Schwartz ’72, President, Industrial Economics, Inc. 12:30 – 1:30, Hillcrest 103 for the Howard E. Woodin Colloquium.
- Fullerton, Don and Robert N. Stavins. 1998. “How Economists See the Environment.” Nature 395 (October 1, 1998): 433-34. (Stavins, Chapter 1)
- Hardin, Garret. 1968. “The Tragedy of the Commons.” Science 162: 1243-48.
- Golden Balls’ episode – Split or Steal?
Be ready to present and discuss in class a game theory version of Hardin’s tragedy of the commons. And be ready to discuss how one might overcome the tragedy of the commons for, say, the over-exploitation of a fishery.
Week 2
Tuesday, February 19th
- Stavins, Robert. 2011. “The Problem of the Commons: Still Unsettled after 100 Years.” American Economic Review 101 (February 2011): 81-108. (Stavins, Chapter 30)
- “200 countries, 200 years, 4 minutes.” Hans Rosling of Gapminder
- Special event #2: “When Will We Run Out? Some Mathematical Models of the Depletion of Nonrenewable Resources.” Professor Mike Olinick. Tuesday, February 19, 3:15 p.m. Warner 203
Thursday, February 21st
- Special event #3: “The Production and Emission of Methane by Living Trees.”
Kristofer Covey, PhD. Candidate, Silviculture and Biogeochemistry, Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. 12:30 – 1:30, Hillcrest 103 for the Howard E. Woodin Colloquium. - Special event #4: “Nature’s Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature.” 4:30 pm BiHall 216
- Due in by email and in Isham’s Hillcrest mailbox: a two-page paper proposal
Week 3
Tuesday, February 26th
- Baumol, William J. and Wallace E. Oates. 1988. The Theory of Environmental Policy (Chapter 3.) Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ERES
Thursday, February 28th
- Coase, Ronald. 1960. “The Problem of Social Cost.” The Journal of Law and Economics. (Stavins, Chapter 3).
Be ready to present and explain in class the rancher-farmer example as an illustration of the Coase Theorem.
Week 4
Tuesday, March 5th
- Meeting with Brenda Ellis in the Davis Library lab (room 105)
Thursday, March 7th
- Ostrom, Elinor. 1990. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (all on ERES).
- Chapters 1 – “Reflections on the Commons”
- Chapter 3 – “Analyzing Long-Enduring CPRs.” (first part – pp. 58 – 88 – sent by email; second part – pp. 88-102 – found on ERES.)
- Review of two journal articles (due in class)
Week 5
Tuesday, March 12th
- Solow, Robert. 1992. “An Almost Practical Step Toward Sustainability.” Paper presented at Resources for the Future, Washington, DC. (ERES)
Thursday, March 14th
- Special event #5: “U.S. Action on Clean Energy and Climate Change (via Skype).” Holmes Hummel, Senior Advisor, Office of the Undersecretary for Energy, U.S. Department of Energy. 12:30 – 1:30, Hillcrest 103 for the Howard E. Woodin Colloquium.
- Dasgupta, Susmita et al. 2002. “Confronting the Environmental Kuznets Curve.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 16 (1): 147-68.
- Isham, Jonathan, et al. 2005. “The Varieties of the Resource Experience.” The World Bank Economic Review 9 (2): 141-74
Week 6
Tuesday, March 19th
- Review period for mid-term exam
Thursday, March 21st
- Mid-term exam
SPRING BREAK (Week of March 25th)
Week 7
Tuesday, April 2nd
- Cod, parts 1 and 2
- “In Canada, cod remain scarce despite ban.” Boston Globe. March 4, 2012
- “Officials Back Deep Cuts in Atlantic Cod Harvest to Save Industry.” New York Times. January 20, 2013.
Thursday, April 4th
- “A Tale of Two Fisheries.’ John Tierney – The New York Times (August 27th, 2000)”
- Cod, part 3 and discussion of papers
- A snippet of a song about eating cod from Gordon Bok
Week 8
Tuesday, April 9th
- “Is There a Role for Benefit-Cost Analysis in Environmental, Health and Safety Regulation?“ Arrow, Kenneth et al. Science: April 26, 1996.
- “An Eye on the Future.” Lawrence Goulder and Robert Stavins. Nature 419 (2002): 673-74.
- “Uncertainty in Environmental Economics.” Robert Pindyck. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 1 (2007): 45-65
Thursday, April 11th
- “One fracking minute: an animated explainer on hydraulic fracturing.” American Public Media. December 7, 2012.
- “The debate over fracking.” CBS News. December 30, 2012.
- “It’s Not Easy Being Green.” Jason Mark. The American Prospect. April 2, 2013.
Week 9
Monday, April 15th – first draft of paper due
Tuesday, April 16th
- “The Shipbreakers.” The Atlantic Monthly; August 2000. Volume 286, No. 2; page 31-49. (Also available here via ProQuest.)
- “Reprise: Wasted 7/7, from the Motor Breakers to the Sample Room” including links to 7 posts
- ‘The Race to Reduce E-Waste.” Planet Forward, March 2013
- And take a look at this Good Point blog post
Thursday, April 18th
- “Designing Climate Mitigation Policy.” Joseph Aldy et al. Journal of Economic Literature December 2010, 48(4): 903 – 34.
Week 10
Monday, April 22nd – peer review of paper due
Tuesday, April 23rd
- Barnes, chapters 1 – 5
Thursday, April 25th
- Barnes, chapters 6 – 8
- Peter Barnes on cap and dividend
- Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs, on who owns our nation’s oil and gas (February 2012)
- On the Commons
Week 11
Monday, April 29th – final draft of papers due
Tuesday, April 30th
- Paper presentations: Will, Trevor, and Jessica
Thursday, May 2nd
- Paper presentations: Jesse, Jack, Emily, and Luke
Week 12
Tuesday, May 7th
- Paper presentations: Owen, Fielding, Andrew, Joe, and Charlie K
Thursday, May 9th
- Paper presentations: Zach, Vivian and Charlie W.
Exam period:
Final exam/policy paper
