ARE 147/M introduces students to the use of economics to understand and analyze environmental and natural resource problems and policy. Topics covered include economic efficiency, costs, benefits, benefit-cost analysis, equity, markets, market failures, externalities, public goods, open access resources, and government policy. Students will learn how to apply these concepts to a variety of environmental and natural resource issues, including air pollution, water pollution, open space, endangered species, water, fisheries, and forests. Prerequisite: Economics 1A. GE credit: SocSci.
ARE/ESP 175 introduces students to the economics of renewable and nonrenewable natural resources. Topics covered include the valuation and use of land and water; fishery economics, management and regulation; extraction and management of nonrenewable resources such as minerals and energy resources; renewable and nonrenewable sources of energy; forest use; sustainability; and natural resource scarcity. Students will learn how to use dynamic models to analyze decision making over time. A solid background in calculus is required. Prerequisite: ARE 100B, Economics 100, or permission of instructor. GE credit: SocSci.
The first half of ARE 254 covers analytical concepts and techniques of dynamic analysis, with a focus on optimal control theory as applied to economic problems. Topics covered include the maximum principle and the concepts of a stationary rate of return to capital and a stationary solution. Applications to nonrenewable resource extraction and optimal economic growth will be presented.
The second half of ARE 254 covers numerical methods for analyzing optimal control theory problems; analytic and numerical methods for solving dynamic programming problems; and numerical methods for solving stochastic dynamic programming problems, with a focus on such economic applications as firm investment, nonrenewable resource extraction, optimal economic growth, subsistence agriculture, investment under uncertainty, optimal stopping, (S,s) policies, and q theory.
This course prepares you for courses that focus on decision making over time, including ARE 277 and ARE 255.
ARE 255 covers structural econometric models of static games of incomplete information, single-agent dynamic optimization problems and multi-agent dynamic games, with a focus on applications to issues relevant to the environment, energy, natural resources, agriculture, and development. The methods covered in the course enable one to analyze the strategic and dynamic decision-making behavior of individuals and firms; to analyze how different institutions and policies (and changes in these institutions and policies) affect this behavior and its outcome; and to design institutions and policies so that the decision-making behavior and outcome that are realized increase social welfare. Prerequisites: Graduate-level microeconomics, graduate-level econometrics, and ARE 254.