Environment and Development

Many developing countries find themselves confronted by remarkably high levels of environmental degradation, combined with significant dependence on natural resources. Recent research has shown that the social costs of pollution are widespread and extremely large.vNevertheless, policymakers face difficult trade-offs when deciding to allocate scarce resources to solving environmental problems, given the many other growth and development challenges before these countries.

This course explores the complex policy landscape lying at the intersection of environment and development concerns, paying equal attention to recent academic research, and the realities of governance and policy-making. We will selectively review the economics and science characterizing environmental problems of different kinds, including air and water pollution, deforestation, and climate change. Readings and project work will assume some exposure to micro-economics, at least at the level of an undergraduate course. Basic data analysis skills and comfort with quantitative analysis techniques such as regression modeling is also highly recommended, since we will primarily review empirical work.