Economy, Regulation and Market
Code
73224108
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Geografia e Planeamento Regional
Credits
5
Weekly hours
2
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
The goal of this course is to enable students to deeper understanding of the fundamentals and tools of the economic approach of the interactions between the environmental and the economic system, and enable them to understand also the potential and limitations of environmental economics and markets regulation.
In this course the students shall:
- acquire the ability to integrate the economic approach with other approaches to identify, formulate, analyze and solve/mitigate environmental problems ;
-develop skills , namely to: a) identify the economic causes of environmental problems; b ) design, implement and evaluate environmental policy instruments; c ) understand, analyze and develop mechanisms for the regulation of markets (e.g. energy, water services);
-develop skills to be autonomous in the research and analysis of information;
-to provide the students a contact with the main themes and new research in the frontier of knowledge in environmental economics and regulation of markets.
Prerequisites
None
Subject matter
The syllabus will include the following topics:
- The Economy, the environment and climate change;
- The functioning of markets: equilibrium and efficiency;
- Market failures and the need for public policies and market regulation;
- Environmental policy instruments;
- Cost-benefit analysis;
- Sustainability assessment.
The contents of this course can vary for some modules, depending on the students background and their research interests.
Each year one or two researchers from other institutions in R & D, national and / or international, or key actors in the area, will be invited to present new research topics and / or discuss the potential contribution of the approach presented in this course for problem solving and the design of public policies in the area of PDACPDS.
Bibliography
Field, B., Field, M., (2012), Environmental Economics: an introduction, 6th ed, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., New York. ISBN-10: 007351148X
Santos, R., Antunes, P., (1999), Instrumentos Económicos de Política de Ambiente, in Ambiente, Economia e Sociedade, Série \"Estudos e Documentos\", Conselho Económico e Social, Lx
Stavins, R. (ed.), (2012). Economics of the Environment: Selected Readings, 6th ed. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, USA. ISBN 978-0-393-91340-8
Tietenberg, T. and Lewis, L. (2011). Environmental & Natural Resource Economics, 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., USA. ISBN-10: 0132843005
Teaching method
The teaching methods are based on the combination of modules oriented to introduce the principles, concepts and tools, using graphical and numerical analysis, and where students are given the script of generic subjects, with modules oriented to promote the discussion of the key aspects and of real case studies. It is also promoted the oral presentation and discussion of papers by the students.
Research and autonomous study are strongly encouraged.
Evaluation method
Students may choose one of two options to perform the evaluation of this course, according to their basic training and research interests:
Option 1: final exam about the whole program;
Option 2: preparation of a work, in the format of a scientific paper, about a topic of the course, envisaging a conference presentation in the research area of the student.