Welcome to APEC 3611w: Environmental and Natural Resource Economics!
Location: Ruttan Hall B25(preferred) or online via Zoom (contact me to get link)
Timing: Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 10:40 to 11:30 am CT, from January 21, 2026 to May 4, 2026.
Syllabus: syllabus.html
Textbook: Markets and the Environment
Google drive (email me if you need access).
Video playlist for all lectures: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLir2vw2cQ_NuDtFiwNyQiU_WX_lTWYpUH
Schedule
This will be updated as we proceed. If there’s not a link to a resource yet, it is not finalized yet and might change.
| Date | Title | Subtitle | Reading(s) | Video | Slides | Deadlines/ Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-01-21 | Introduction | Environmental and Natural Resource Economics in a Global Framing | 01 | 01 | ||
| 2026-01-23 | Class canceled (extreme cold and ice) | Weekly Questions 1 assigned. | ||||
| 2026-01-26 | The Doughnut | Macroeconomic Feasibility | 02 | 02 | Weekly Questions 1 due. | |
| 2026-01-28 | The Microfilling | Microeconomic Decision-making | No reading. | 03 | 03 | |
| 2026-01-30 | Supply and Demand | The power of equilibrium and Micro-Macro Synthesis | 04 | Weekly Questions 2 assigned. | ||
| 2026-02-02 | Cost benefit analysis | The standard workhorse of environmental economics | Weekly Questions 2 due. | |||
| Optimal Pollution | A contradiction? | |||||
| Externalities | Spillovers | |||||
| Public Goods | Underprovision is likely | |||||
| Commons | Always a Tragedy? | |||||
| The Whole Economy | Partial vs General Equilibrium | |||||
| GDP | Measuring what matters | |||||
| Kuznets Curve | Does development improve the environment? | |||||
| Inclusive Wealth | A better metric? | |||||
| Sustainable Development | Methods to define sustainability | |||||
| Climate Change | The ultimate externality | |||||
| Social Cost of Carbon | Manage per ton of carbon | |||||
| Climate IAMs | DICE and Climate Skepticism | |||||
| Air Pollution | Spillovers in the air | |||||
| Water Pollution | Spillovers on the ground | |||||
| 3/6/2026 | Midterm Exam | |||||
| Non-renewables | Will we run out? | |||||
| Will we run out? | How much should we extract? | |||||
| Fisheries | Renewable resources 1 | |||||
| Forestry | Renewable resources 2 | |||||
| Land as a resource | The forgotten input | |||||
| Land-use change | Tools to predict where nature is at risk | |||||
| Ecosystem Services | Return to the Micro-Macro relationship | |||||
| Valuing Nature | Bottom-up methods for putting a monetary value on nature | |||||
| Biodiversity | Species protection and the fundamental source of value | |||||
| GIS and Carbon | Introduction and context | |||||
| Sediment Retention | Methods and specific services | |||||
| Ecosystem Tradeoffs | More services and policy directions | |||||
| Uncertainty | Risk, Uncertainty and Tipping Points | |||||
| Possible Futures | Shared socio-economic pathways | |||||
| Positive Visions | Nature Futures Framework | |||||
| Policy Analysis | Designing policies for earth-economy systems | |||||
| Market-based Policies | Micro-level optimization | |||||
| Real World Policies | Quotas, Trading and Taxes | |||||
| Earth Economy Models | A video game for sustainability? | |||||
| Gridded Models | Millions of markets | |||||
| EE in Practice | GTAP-InVEST | |||||
| Conclusion | Where to go from here? | |||||
| 5/12/2026 | Final Exam | 8:00-10:00 AM | ||||