The course concentrates on the main challenges posed by economic development and growth to our environment. Students will learn both market‐based and institutional‐based responses to environmental problems. Case studies will be extensively used to evaluate alternative policies to sustainability.  

In the first part of the course, students will learn market‐based approaches to environmental problems through a number of case studies showing why markets fail to produce environmentally sustainable economies. Students will learn to evaluate different approaches to manage global commons, with an introduction to cost‐benefit analysis and its limitations.

The second part of the course concentrates, instead, on macroeconomic approaches to environmental problems. Students will learn about the green GDP; transition models to green economies; problems and solutions posed by population growth, agriculture, fisheries and forests, water management and international trade.

*Course content subject to change