Economics 3100: Issues in Economics
Fall, 2001
Prof. Allan MacNeill
HSPC 210
Phone: 968-7489
Fax: 968-7403
macneiam@webster.edu
www.webster.edu/~macneiam

Course Description: This course will provide an introduction to the field of environmental economics. Economists have contributed much to environmental thought and policy, and their ideas continue to be highly influential in policy discussions throughout the world. However, their ideas have provoked much criticism, especially from environmental activists. The course will primarily focus on neoclassical economic theory, the school of thought that has been the most influential and controversial. The neoclassical paradigm will be critically examined throughout the course and in the final part of the course we will survey alternative perspectives on the relationship between the environment and the economy.

Text:

Barry Field and Martha Field, Environmental Economics: An Introduction. 3^rd Edition.
    McGraw Hill.

Course Requirements:
The course requirements will include 4 short papers (4-6 pages each), a midterm and a final exam. Students are expected to have read the assigned readings and to come to class prepared to participate in discussion and other classroom exercises.

4 short papers (40%) midterm (30%) final (30%)

Academic Dishonesty:

It is the policy of the instructor that any student caught cheating or committing plagiarism will receive a failing grade for the course and my be subject to further disciplinary action. Plagiarism occurs when a writer intentionally or unintentionally uses someone else's words or ideas without proper acknowledgement

Course Outline:

Week

1.  Introduction
         Field, Chs. 1 & 2

2.  Neoclassical Economics and The Environment
         Field, Chs. 3-5

3,4  Environmental Analysis: costs and benefits
         Field, Chs. 6-8
         Mark Sagoff, "Why Political Questions are not all Economic"
         Paper #1

5-7  Environmental Policy: command vs. incentives
        Field, Chs. 9-13
        Jonathan Adler, "Rent Seeking Behind the Green Curtain"
        Paper #2

8   U.S. Environmental Policy: water and air pollution
        Field, Chs. 14, 15
        Midterm Exam

FALL BREAK

9, 10 U.S Environmental Policy: hazardous wastes and recycling
        Field, Chs. 16, 17
        John Tierney, "Recycling is Garbage"
        Denison and Ruston, "Anti-Recycling Myths"
        Paper #3

11, 12 International Environmental Issues: Development and Global Warming
        Field, Chs. 18-21
        John Bellamy Foster, "The Global Policies of the U.S. are Environmentally Unjust"
        Paper #4

13-15 Alternative Perspectives:

Ecological Economics

Herman Daly and John Cobb, For The Common Good
Kenneth Boulding, "Earth as a Spaceship"

Marxian Economics

Adriana Vlachou, "Economics of Global Warming"
John Bellamy Foster, "Global Ecology and the Common Good"

EcoFeminism

Carolyn Merchant, "Women and Ecology"
Mies and Shiva, "Ecofeminism"

Radical Ecology

Readings TBA

Week 16 Final Exam