Course program
1. Introduction.
a. The discipline and its area of work; environmental challenges and the role of economics.
b. Trade-off between use and conservation of resources and the circular economic system.
c. Renewable & non-renewable resources and environmental economics and the concept of sustainability.
d. Literature review: basic terminology and concepts of NR economics; the current intellectual debate; globalization and development; the theory of NR curse.

2. Economic analysis of environment and natural resources (the economic approach).
a. markets, supply and demand, property rights, externalities, market failures and efficient market allocations (with and without externalities). Producer’s surplus, scarcity rent and long-run competitive equilibrium.
b. Static and dynamic efficiency and sustainable development.
c. Public policies for environmental protection and the preservation of natural resources: taxes and subsidies, cap-and-trade, regulation.
d. Methodological issues: evaluating trade-offs through benefit-cost analysis and other decision-making metrics; discount rate and discounting; methods to evaluate the environment.

3. Applied problems related to the economics and policy of environment and natural resources.
a. Depletable resource allocation and the economics of recycling
b. Storable, renewable resources: forest harvest decision and the economic efficient rotation; portfolio analysis; factors affecting the efficient rotation; impact of nontimber forest values.
c. Common-pool resources: current problems in marine fisheries; the biological growth function; the effort-yield function; maximum sustained yields; efficient rates of effort; the problem of open access; approaches to fisheries management; regulating fishing practices, catch limits; individual transferable quotas (ITQs); taxation.

Practical sessions
Benefit-cost analysis applied to projects/policies and evaluation of alternatives (a practical application will be assigned during the course)

Teaching material
• Textbook: Tom Tietenberg, Lynne Lewis. Environmental & Natural Resource Economics. 9th Edition, 2012. Pearson Education, Inc.. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-139257-1. Chapters: from 1 to 6, 8, 12, 13 and 14.
Available at:
https://fcom.stafpu.bu.edu.eg/Economy/3898/crs-15010/Files/environmental_and_natural_resource_economics_by_tom_tietenberg_9th_edition.pdf
• Lecture slides are available on Moodle Platform and on the shared Google drive.
• Exercises will be discussed during the course.