M134: Environmental Economics IMPORTANT NOTE: It is your responsibility to make sure your

homework and test scores are recorded correctly. Please check your
Summer 2017 online records periodically and let us know immediately if you see an
Mel Bulu-Taciroglu melike9@ucla.edu error.
Tue-Thur 10-11:50, ROYCE 362
Office Hour: Tuesday noon-1pm, Boelter Hall 6532A Course Schedule & Topics

1. Kahn Matthew, Fundamentals of Environmental Economics: Solving
Urban Pollution Problems
2. Lecture Notes posted on class webpage.
3. https://ccle.ucla.edu/course/view/171A-ENVIRONM134-1
Week 1: Introduction to Environmental Economics
Economics, Incentives, Rational Choice questioned
Building on Microeconomics
Pareto and Hicksian Efficiency Concepts
Public Goods versus Private Goods

Grading: Week 2: Externalities, Corrective Taxes and Cap&Trade Chapters

1,2,3.
Homework 20%:
Externalities in Production and in Consumption
Homeworks are going to be posted online. You will submit electronic
files (PDF files only!). No hard copies will be accepted. No late Graphical representation of externalities
submissions will be accepted. Entire solution should be given in the Implications of deadweight loss
submitted document including the methodology that is used. (For A steel factorys private and socially optimal production level
instance, giving only one number, say 43.56, as the answer of a Internalizing the externalities
question is not acceptable even though it may be correct.) You can Corrective Taxes
work on your homework as a group (up to 3 people). Only one copy
should be submitted online with the names of all group members Cap&Trade
clearly appearing on the document.
Week 3: Governments Role
Group Project 10% : Posted online under Group Project tab.
Cause Theorem
Midterm 30%: Comparison: Cap&Trade versus Taxes
July 20 Thursday, in class. Closed notes and book.
th Unintended consequences of government policy
Endogenous preferences
Final 40%:
Week 4: Public Goods & Midterm
August 17 , Thursday in class. Cumulative. Closed notes and book.
th

Class Participation: Optimal Provision of Public Goods

Thursday - Midterm Exam (July 20 ) th

Topics we will cover occupy the front pages of news media everyday.
We will follow current events and discuss them in class. Attending Week 5: Time Value of Money
lectures and participating in class discussions make digesting the
material much easier. Thinking about a topic within the context of a Discounting the future generations
current event will force you to deepen your understanding. That way,
you will be able to tap into your environmental economics knowledge Public versus private discount rate
even years after you complete this course. You will be provided with
news articles (via posted links on class website). You will get a Week 6:
chance to earn extra points during lectures via your participation in
current event discussions!!!(to be added to your class grand point Where Do Factories Locate Chapter 4
average.) You are encouraged to continue the discussions on the Where Do Residents Locate Chapter 5
online forum.
Tiebout Sorting
Course Objectives:
Week 7: Resource Economics
The objective of this course is to introduce the fundamentals of the
multidisciplinary fields of environmental, urban, and natural resource Pricing the unpriceables
economics Optimal depletion of natural resources
Course Content: Week 8: Review and Final
This course seeks to introduce students to the major ideas in
Tuesday Review in class
environmental and urban economics and natural resource economics.
Emphasis is placed on designing incentives to protect the environment. Thursday Final Exam
Basic Microsoft Excel knowledge will be useful to analyze data to test
hypotheses about pollutions causes and consequences. The course is
open to all students who have completed a statistics course and have
taken intermediate microeconomics or have received permission from
the instructor.