ØASØK4200 Environmental Economics Course description

Economic activities impact the environment. Plastics end up in the ocean, producing one T-shirt consumes thousands of liters of water, and salmon farmers pour toxic chemicals into the seas to fight lice infestations. Economists see the natural world around them as providing environmental goods and services that we all enjoy, such as a lake to swim in, drinking water, or a forest that filters the air. Pollution to an economist is an unintended byproduct of activities that are otherwise desirable, like flying to New York, assembling computers, or eating dinner.

This course teaches students to think like economists about a wide range of environmental problems, from small, local ones to the biggest one of them all, climate change. Students learn about the economics of environmental regulation. We can try to reduce pollution in many ways: by providing information, `nudging´ people to `do the right thing´, subsidizing clean technologies, taxing emissions, creating cap-and-trade markets, banning substances, or signing up to international environmental agreements. The students learn how pollution crossing borders complicates the picture, and how trading goods affects where - and how much - pollution takes place. They will consider what taxing pollution means for other parts of the economy, and they will think about how green technologies are developed.

Work and teaching methods comprise skills training, seminars, lectures, work and supervision in project groups and field studies in Oslo. Throughout the course, students work individually on an assignment to be graded in the exam.

Fieldwork

The field studies are based in an area in the public domain in Oslo. Students work with accessibility, adaptation and technical aids targeting a relevant user group.

None

Knowledge

Students will gain insight into:

• The fundamental ideas of the environment as provider of economic goods and services, and of pollution as being the unintended byproduct of economic actions.
• About a range of important environmental problems caused by economic activity, and their economic characteristics.
• Different economic types of regulation addressing pollution.
• The importance of context in economic analysis of the environment.
• Different methods to investigate the impact of pollution and regulations.

Skills

The students will learn:

• How to use economic analysis and modeling to assess pollution.
• How to use economic analysis to assess environmental regulation.
• How to understand empirical evidence regarding environmental problems and potential solutions.
• How to critically assess economic analyses directed at environmental problems.

Lectures with active student participation.

None.

There is one final 4-hour exam at the end of the semester.

Accessible environments are an important precondition for occupation and participation. Occupational therapists can work at system level with universal design, or at individual and group level with adaptation of the environment and the use of aids as a health-promoting or compensating measure Technology makes up a significant part of the aids currently available to users with physical, cognitive, mental or social challenges. Technology can also be used as part of the training of skills and functions in a rehabilitation process. Digital competence in development, use and security is important in a digitalised society.

The student must have passed the first year of the programme or equivalent.

An external examiner will together with the internal examiner grade the exam.

Svenn Jensen