market failures: common goods, public goods; externalities; public intervention: goals and instruments (C&C, carbon tax, cap and trade); Cost-benefit analysis; Assigning value to the environment: methods; Using natural resources: limits of growth; environmental Kuznets curve, energy and emissions scenarios; Economics and Policy of Climate Change; Electricity market operation and main reforms; Emissions Trading Scheme; Policies for renewables
Perman, Ma, Maddison, Common, McGilvray (4th edition), Natural resource and Environmental Economics, Pearson. Cap. 1-7; Cap 11-12
Tom Tietenberg, Lynne Lewis (9th Edition), Environmental & Natural Resource Economics, Pearson, Cap. 2 (property rights, externalities) Cap. 3-4 (Analisi costi-benefici; metodi di valutazione dell’ambiente)
Cellini, Politica economica. Introduzione ai modelli fondamentali, cap. 3 (fondamenti economia del benessere); cap. 10 (beni pubblici)
IPCC report (emissions scenarios)
International Energy Agency, World Energy Outlook (energy scenarios)
De Paoli L. The EU Emission Trading System: for an effective and viable reform, Energy and Environmental Observatory
Florio M. Network Industries and Social Welfare: The Experiment that Reshuffled European Utilities (OUP, cap. 1-2)
Helm D. (2005) The Assessment: The new Energy paradigm, Oxford Review of Economic Policy
Pollit M. (2012) The role of policy in energy transitions: lessons from the energy liberalisation era, Cambridge Working Paper in Economics
Koske, I. et al. (2015), “The 2013 update of the OECD's database on product market regulation: Policy insights for OECD and non-OECD countries”, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1200, OECD Publishing, Paris.
Regulation of the Power Sector Editors: Pérez-Arriaga, Ignacio J. (Ed.), caps. 1-2
Thomas S. Clò S. Market reforms, governance and performance: lessons learned from the experience in the EU energy industries, in: Massimo Florio (ed.), The Reform of Network Industries, chapter 3, pages 43-66, Edward Elgar Publishing.
Clò S. Le politiche di sostegno al fotovoltaico nel mercato elettrico italiano: esiti e problematiche, in ALBERTO CLÔ, STEFANO CLÔ, FEDERICO BOFFA (A CURA DI) Riforme elettriche tra efficienza ed equità
The slides loaded in the Moodle platform (e-learning) do not replace the reference texts, but indicate the topics covered in class
For the case studies covered in class, specific articles will be uploaded to the Moodle platform (e-learning)
Learning Objectives
The first part of the course will be theoretical. The main microeconomic and macroeconomic approaches to the environmental question will be presented, respectively: i) environmental externalities and legal-economic tools to internalize them; ii) the limits of growth, technological innovation and sustainable development. The second part of the course will be applied. During the course we will analyze the problems of climate change, the depletion of resources and energy security, and the relative economic policies adopted in Europe and Italy will be evaluated to deal with them. The impact of these policies will be analyzed with particular reference to the electricity market, which will discuss the organizational structure and the main reforms that have affected it in recent decades.
Prerequisites
The student must know the fundamental principles of microeconomics and be familiar with graphical analysis and with mathematical concepts (first derivatives)
Teaching Methods
frontal lectures will be accompanied by a discussion of current topics, active simulations, analysis of European and national policies, presentation of case studies and / or academic articles by students.
Type of Assessment
Written exam on the first part of the course. Oral exam and possibility of group work for attending students. Possible intermediate exam to be agreed with the attending students
Course program
Introduction to the economy of the environment
Efficiency, well-being and market failures
Objectives of public intervention: the "efficient level" of pollution; Comparative analysis of public intervention tools
Evaluate trade-offs: Cost-benefit analysis
Assigning a value to the environment: methods
Sustainability - relationship between growth and limited resources, the role of technological progress.
Long-term energy scenarios: the World Energy Outlook and IPCC reports on emissions scenarios
Climate Change Economics and Policy: Limits to international cooperation
European and national energy-climate policies: impact assessment
Functioning of electricity markets and main reforms
Emissions Trading Scheme
Renewable policies and impact on electricity markets