INTRODUCTION: While economic theory is pertinent to intuitively grasping the underlying dynamics of the relationship between economic systems and the environment, it is the empirical verification of these tools that will provide policy makers with more concrete parameters with which to formulate their policies. This course will provide an overview of the empirical methods commonly used in the field of environmental economics to evaluate valuation of the environment, to deal with the shortcomings of available data, and to accurately measure relationships and identify their causal nature.

OBJECTIVE: To provide the students with a general overview of the most common methods used in empirical environmental economics. While the theoretical foundations of these methods will be outlined, a strong emphasis will be placed on providing practical implementation through examples and exercises.

SUBJECTS TO BE COVERED:

I - Contingent Valuation:
• Measurement of Willingness to Pay
• Measurement of Willingness to Accept
II –Regression Analysis:
• Least Squares Estimation
• Instrumental Variables Estimation
• Quasi-Experimental Methods
III - Experimental Methods
• Field Experiments
• Laboratory Experiments

Textbooks:
I. Bateman and K. Wills (2001). Valuing Environmental Preferences. Oxford University Press.
J. Angrist and J. Pischke (2008). Mostly Harmless Econometrics. Princeton University Press.
T. Cherry, S. Kroll, J.F. Shogren (2008). Experimental Methods in Environmental Economics. Oxford: Routledge.

Dernière mise à jour : vendredi 17 février 2012