Empirical Environmental Economics

Abstract

The course introduces students to the basics of empirical research in environmental economics. We will discuss various policy instruments and study empirical methods to evaluate the efficacy of key environmental policies in the real world. Students will have opportunities to work with data and replicate important empirical findings in the literature.

Objective

Students will become familiar and well-versed with (1) an empirically-oriented approach to think about environmental problems and policy instruments, (2) empirical methods widely used to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental policies and (3) be able to discuss the efficacy of key environmental policies in the real world in a critical manner.

Content

In the first part of course, students will learn various empirical methods that are commonly used by empirical researchers. Once equipped with technical knowledge, in the second part of the course, we will discuss research papers that empirically identify environmental externalities. Topics include (1) the impact of temperature shocks on economic growth and productivity, (2) health impacts of air pollution, (3) and how environmental factors may affect other economic outcomes such as political stability, migration flows and labor market outcomes. In the remaining part of the course, we will study environmental regulations designed to address such externalities. We will discuss papers that conduct ex-post empirical evaluations of key regulations around the world. We will see (1) how environmental regulation affects the competitiveness of industry, (2) how effective environmental polices are in inducing energy conservation from consumers, (3) firms' innovation activities in response to regulation, and finally (4) environmental regulation in the developing country context.

Resources