Empirical Environmental Economics

Objectif

This course will examine current issues in environmental economics, with a focus on how micro-econometric methods can be used to answer research questions in that field. It will provide students with an overview of the recent literature, the challenges of using applied microeconomics and policy evaluation methods in environmental economics, and some practical tools to overcome these challenges.

We will draw on the recent empirical literature in environmental economics to better understand:
i) what are the key challenges in tackling environmental issues, in particular climate change, from the perspective of both developed and developing countries
ii) what answers the recent environmental economics literature has provided on these issues
iii) how to conduct empirical research on these questions.

Coursework and examination

Students are expected to read at least the abstract of the papers in the reading list before the lecture, and are encouraged to read the introduction.

20% of the grade will be based on students’ presentations at “the paper debate”: each lecture starting from lecture 2 will have one or two such paper debates, which consist in two students presenting the pros (student 1) and cons (student 2) of a paper, focusing on the quality of its contribution, empirical approach and findings. Each presentation lasts 3-4 minutes without slides.  At the end of the two presentations, the other students vote on whether they would like to read the paper or not.

The examination will be based on a group assignment (groups of 2 or 3 students) in which the students will use statistical software to analyze data and answer a research question, based on a list of proposed topics and published papers. The assignment will take the form of a short research paper including a literature review and a data analysis, along with the code used to analyze the data.

The final grade will be made of the grade at the paper debate plus the grade at the group assignment.

Pre-requisites
The course combines theory and empirics and has a strong applied focus. In particular, it is assumed that students will have followed a course in micro-econometrics and policy evaluation methods such as the Microeconometric Evaluation of Public Policies course given by Bruno Crépon and Maxime Tô. Having followed the Introduction to Environmental Economics course given by Florian Grosset-Touba in 2A will help, but is not a pre-requisite.

Intended Learning Outcomes
Upon succes%