knowledge skills - capacity to understand and analyze problems in environmental economics - capacity to evaluate the environmental consequences of economic activity - capacity to interpret environmental taxes and market-based instruments of environmental regulation - capacity to apply theoretical models from environmental and natural resource economics to real-world problems technical skills - effective problem-solving - solve problems using spreadsheet or econometric software - ability to work in groups - critical reasoning - written and oral communication

The course begins with an introduction to the field of environmental and natural resource economics. It presents the theory of optimal management of renewable and non-renewable resources and introduces the students to different forms of environmental regulation, giving particular regard to market based instruments such as tradeable pollution rights. Different concepts for the valuation of non-market amenities such as environmental quality are presented, including hedonic pricing, travel cost methods and contingent valuation. Their use is exemplified with an introduction to environmental cost-benefit analysis. Finally, the course touches on issues associated with the regulation of transboundary pollution and introduces basic concepts of environmental national accounting.

Students will acquire the knowledge and technical skills set out above by following the lectures ("magistrales"), by solving problems that will be turned in to the professor and corrected jointly in class, and by attending review sessions ("reducidas") in which problems are solved at the black board. Likewise, part of the skills will be acquired by the students through individual research. The educational activities are aimed at enabling the students to use the tools of economic analysis acquired in previous classes and to apply them to the regulation of environmental problems. The teaching method is interactive and based on the use of computer software (spreadsheet and/or econometric applications) for the analysis of case studies related to environmental protection and to natural resources management.