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Environmental Macroeconomics
Last Updated: 2026-02-05 16:39:15
Abstract
Both environmental change and policies affect the macroeconomy through growth, public finances, trade, and financial stability. This class seeks to enable students to start doing research in environmental macroeconomics. After this class students should be comfortable working with basic environment-macro models both theoretically and quantitatively and should know key frontiers in the literature.
Objective
After taking this course, students should: - Have a broad sense of both the history and current frontiers in the environment-macro literature. - Have a basic understanding of some of the key models and methods used at the current frontiers. - Be able to numerically run and extend benchmark climate-macroeconomic models (DICE, GHKT). - Be able to derive theoretical results pertaining to optimal climate policy in simple extensions of GHKT. - Have developed a viable research proposal in the field (with feedback).
Content
This course is designed for Ph.D. students with an interest in environmental issues and a graduate-level background in macroeconomics. The goal of the course is to help students transition from being consumers to producers of the literature, that is, to set them up to start doing original research in environmental macroeconomics. To this end, the course begins with an overview of the history of the field and proceeds to review a combination of both foundational and current frontier papers in different areas of the literature, such as fiscal policy models, DSGE models with uncertainty, endogenous growth models, endogenous technical change models, multi-sector models, multi-region models, models with migration, models with unemployment, monetary policy models, etc. The precise set of topics covered will be adjusted based on student interest once the course begins. While the instructor will prepare and present lecture slides, students are expected to read papers assigned each week, and class discussion is strongly encouraged. To move students from passive understanding to active research, students will be asked to (i) complete an exercise requiring both a theoretical and computational extension of a seminal climate-economic model, (ii) give a presentation on a chosen paper at the frontier, (iii) develop a detailed research proposal in the field. The research proposal development will include a presentation to the class for feedback. Assessment of students' performance is based on the combination of the exercise (25%), their paper presentation (35%), and research proposal (40%). The course materials include lecture slides (posted each week) and readings (also posted on the course website).
General Information
- Language
- English
- Levels
- DR
- Frequency
- Yearly recurring
Examination
- Type
- graded semester performance
Course Components
| Type | Title | Time & Place | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| lecture with exercise | Environmental Macroeconomics |
|
2 h weekly |
Offered In
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Doctorate Management, Technology, and Economics (More Information at: )
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