The class meets Thursday evenings, 6-8:40 pm, in Business Classroom Building 302 or the computer lab in Orson Spencer Hall 277. First class on May 15, last class on July 24, Final Exam Thursday July 31. The instructor's email is ehrbar@lists.econ.utah.edu, office hours before class on Thursday 5-6 pm

Enrollment 396 and 3960

All participants should make themselves an account on this site in the first week of classes May 15-22 2008. Consider your login id as a pseudonym to maintain your privacy, and don't enter your real name but simply repeat the login id in the name field, Your email will never be visible to the visitors of the site as far as Hans knows. This web portal contains the syllabus, the downloadable reading materials, and space for the class assignments.

The focal point of this class is the economics of Cap and Trade. Cap and Trade is the premier instrument promoted by many governments, businesses, and NGOs to control Greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, the practical experiences with cap and trade for greenhouse gases are generally not good, and many environmentalists argue that Cap and Trade is an evasion more concerned about corporate profits than the environment. The privatization of the atmosphere implied by a cap and trade system has even be called the greatest corporate resource grab of history.

The instructor Hans G. Ehrbar considers this one of the central issues in today's environmentalism. We can ill afford spending years pursuing an ineffective approach, but on the other hand cap and trade seems the only alternative on the political horizon. Should conscious environmentalists be opposed to cap and trade, or should they join the bandwagon and try to improve it from within?

This class assembles some of the theoretical tools to make an intelligent decision. The cap and trade system is at the intersection of many economic theories, and we will discuss, at an elementary level, the economics of the different aspects of a cap and trade system. This will provide the participants with a useful cross section of economic and policy tools.

This web site is under development. Right now it has a rudimentary syllabus which will be refined as we go.

Hans has already compiled a page with resources about cap and trade at

http://gaia.econ.utah.edu/planning/seminar/cap-and-trade/

May 15

The Urgency to Act. What must the targets be? A critical discussion of the necessary policy goals in Paul Baer and Tom Athanasiou's Honesty About Dangerous Climate Change. George Monbiot, in his Have we given up on 2 degrees?, makes similar points. Excellent brief info on what is at stake and what the evidence is an interview with John P. Holdren: The Sky is Falling. The urgency is also expressed well at the beginning of Climate 'code red' and in the description of several tipping points in Governments Gamble with our Survival. James Hansen's Tipping Point: Perspective of a Climatologist in the 2008-2009 State of the Wild Report. Did Global Warming slow or stop in the last 10 years? The Accuweather web site has good links about this topic.

May 22

The neoclassical theory of pollutants. Readings: various passages from Tietenberg's textbook Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, an entry at the Social Econ Blog, and Frank Ackerman: Economics for a Warming World, post-autistic economics review, issue 44, Dec 9 2007.

May 29

Emissions trading: the theory

June 5

Emissions trading: history and experiences

June 12

Does emissions trading create new property rights? Readings: Larry Lohmann, Carbon Trading: A Critical Conversation on Climate Change, Privatisation and Power, Development Dialogue 48, published by the Dag Hammarskold Centre, Uppsala, Sweden, in cooperation with The Corner House, UK. This highly readable book-length report can be downloaded here or here (6.4 MB).

June 19

Yale Econ Professor William D Nordhaus wrote Life After Kyoto: Alternative Approaches to Global Warming Policies in 2005. Another Nordhaus article discusses the conditions under which price controls are better than quantity controls. The Carbon Tax Center has good info about the debate between carbon taxes and cap and trade.

June 26

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

July 10

Dynamic Efficiency and Induced Technical Change

July 10

Quantity Contraints versus Price Constraints

July 17

Regulatory Complexity, Gaming, and Capture

July 24

No class due to Pioneer's Day

July 31

Final Exams Due.