BOSTON UNIVERSITY

Department of Economics

CAS EC 371 A1 Environmental Economics - 2026 SPRING SEMESTER

Bahar Erbas, Ph.D. Office:

313

E-mail: [email protected]

Class Hours: M-W-F 11:15 - 12:05 am

(Room CAS 216)

Office Hours: By appointment

TA: Lam Bui Office:

B94

E-mail: [email protected] Office Hours: Fridays 2:00-3:00pm

Course Description

The course introduces the ways in which economic theories and methods are used to

understand and solve environmental problems and sustainable management of natural

resources. After investigating reasons for market failures in the presence of environmental

problems and common property resources, the course introduces the concepts of sustainable

development, dynamic efficiency, and focuses on management of depletable and renewable

resources, including allocation of depletable, nonrecyclable energy resources such as oil,

natural gas, and coal.

Then, the course explores various types of policies and regulatory tools,

mainly command-and-control and market-based instruments. Regulatory discussions also

include cost-benefit-analysis. To introduce management of biotic resources, the course

covers economics of fisheries.

In the final section, it ends with focusing on climate change.

The field of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, has two main areas of study:

Environmental Economics and Resources Economics.

This course is designed to blend the

topics from both study areas rather than focusing solely on one main area. The aim of the

course is to enhance students’ understanding of the relationship between the environment,

natural resources, ecology, and economics, and help them to develop skills to analyze

environmental and resource problems via economic theories and methods.

Prerequisites: CAS EC 201. BU HUB: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Ethical

Reasoning, Teamwork/Collaboration

Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy: Students will learn the effect of global

environmental problems, such as climate change, on local and regional communities around

the world.

Students will acquire understanding of differences in policy solutions in

addressing these problems as well as challenges in sustainability.

Students will learn the

problems and solutions in both developing and developed economies.

Ethical Reasoning: Environmental and resource issues and solutions have implications not

only for countries with low and high incomes and various types of inequalities, but also for

future generation as well as current one.

Students will learn how to employ economic

analysis not only to increase welfare but also address inequalities across various countries,

groups, regions as well as future generations. Students will learn about humancentric view

versus other views towards Earth stewardship.

Teamwork/Collaboration: Management of the environment and natural resources is

transdisciplinary. In addition to putting state of art of different disciplines together, it

requires inclusion of values, views and approaches owned.

Student will practice

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collaboration in team setting where they will harmonize different backgrounds and views for

a common goal.

Students will learn characteristics of a well-functionating team, and how to

work as a team to produce better results.

Required Textbook

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, by T. Tietenberg and L. Lewis, Routledge,

Taylor and Francis Group, 12th Edition, 2023.

Students should have access to a copy of the textbook via First Day Delivery Program.

First Day™ Delivery Program: The course uses this program by our bookstore.

To enhance

your learning experience and simplify access to the right materials for your class, your course

materials have been integrated directly into your course.

Benefits of the First Day Program:

Exclusive preferred pricing, Guaranteed the right materials, Single Sign-On, Ready to go on

day one, Course materials charge will be placed on your student account, Option to Opt-Out

on the first day of class.

Accessing Your Materials: To access your required materials for your course, Log into

Blackboard and follow instructions provided by the “First Day Program” power point slides

on the Blackboard site of the course.

Boston University will bill you at the discounted price

as a First Day course material charge on your student account later in the semester.

Please be advised it is NOT recommended that you Opt-Out, as these materials are required

by for the course. You can choose to Opt-Out on the first day of class, but you will be

responsible for purchasing your course materials at the Opt-Out price.

For more information and FAQs click here. (customercare.bncollege.com)

Additional Reference Books

Environmental Economics and Management: Theory, Policy and Applications by Scott J.

Callan and Janet M. Thomas, 6th Edition, Cengage.

Course Website

All course announcements and documents will be posted on to the Blackboard website. You

can login at learn.bu.edu

Assessment

Exams and Grading

Weights

Homework Assignments

24%

Midterm

26% (on Wednesday, March 18th)

Team Debates

20% (March - April)

Final (cumulative)

30% (set by the University Registrar)

Exams and Homework Assignments

Exams and homework assignments mostly consist of numerical problems and short essays.

There will be three homework assignments during the course. Only if you submit all three of

your homework assignments, your overall homework grade will be calculated by taking the

highest two scores that you receive out of these assignments.

Otherwise, all three will be

considered. Homework assignments will be posted on the Blackboard.

Late submissions will be penalized 10% per day and will not be accepted 2 days after the due

date (including weekends); that is 2 days after the due date, no credit is given.

Late

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submission rule is applied to all circumstances. Since the late submission rule is

implemented, there will not be any other exceptions used for the assignments that are not

submitted.

Problems and exercises in the homework assignments facilitate learning the

subject matter and help effectively prepare for the exams.

Special situations: No make-up exams will be given. If a student has a legitimate reason (as

defined by the university) for missing an exam, must report the situation to me by email

before the exam takes place and provide valid documentation of verification.

For those

students with the legitimate reasons, the weights on the other exams and assignments will

be re-adjusted.

If a student does not take an exam without a legitimate reason, the student

will receive zero for the missed exam, and the above weights will apply.

Attendance and Participation Policy

Students are expected to attend all lectures.

Many lectures build on the knowledge acquired

in the previous one. Students are responsible for obtaining lecture notes from their

classmates if they miss a class. Students are highly encouraged to participate to class

discussions and ask questions, so that they can better facilitate their learning.

Students are expected to be a good listener. As a courtesy to their classmates and professor,

they are required to turn off their cell phones and laptops during the class. Professor reserves

the right to dismiss any student who is disruptive from the class.

Learning Assistance

Students with different abilities can work with Disability and Access Services at (617) 353- 3658 or at [email protected] for review and approval of accommodation requests. Please

provide me with your accommodations letter as early as possible in the semester.

Academic Conduct

Students are responsible to become familiar with the Academic Conduct Code available at

http://www.bu.edu/academics/resources/academic-conduct-code/ Students in violation of

the code will not be tolerated and will be subject to the disciplinary actions outlined in the

code.

Cheating on an examination, plagiarism, misrepresentation or falsification of data, theft

of an examination, unauthorized communication during examinations, knowingly allowing

another student to represent your work as his or her own, forgery, alteration or knowing

misuse of graded examinations, quizzes, grade lists, or official records or documents, theft or

destruction of exams or papers, submitting the same work in more than one class, or altering

or destroying another student's work or records, violation of the rules governing teamwork,

and failure to sit in a specifically assigned seat during examinations are some examples of

academic misconduct. Please refer to the link above for the complete list.

Educational Resource Center (ERC)

There are several free programs and services designed to complement your experience in

class at the ERC. Professional staff are available to help you craft a customized plan for

academic success and to help you get connected to the wide variety of resources available at

BU. In addition, free Peer Tutoring is available as another support for this course (subject to

availability). For more information on these and other services: http://www.bu.edu/erc.

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Course Plan: The table below provides the schedule of the topics and important dates for the

course. The plan is subject to change per Prof.’s discretion. Students are responsible for

attending classes and learning of any changes in the schedule.

PLAN

Week1 Outline

I. Jan. 20th–23rd Introduction Readings: Ch.1

II. Jan. 26th–30th

The Economic Approach: Property Rights, Externalities, and

Environmental Problems Readings: Ch.2

III. Feb. 2nd–6th Sustainable Development Readings: Ch. 20

IV. Feb. 9th –13th

Dynamic Efficiency and Sustainable Development Readings: Ch.5

V. Feb. 16th –20th

Presidents’ Day (Feb. 16th)

Substitute Monday Schedule of Classes (Feb. 17th)

Dynamic Efficiency and Sustainable Development Readings: Ch.5

VI. Feb. 23rd–27th

Depletable Resource Allocation: The Role of Longer Time Horizons,

Substitutes and Extraction Cost Readings: Ch.6

VII. March 2nd–6th

Depletable Resource Allocation: The Role of Longer Time Horizons,

Substitutes and Extraction Cost Readings: Ch.6

VIII. March 9th –13th

Spring Recess (March 7th – 15th)

IX. March 16th –20th

Review for Midterm 1 – March 16th, Wednesday

Midterm 1 – March 18th, Wednesday - During Class Time

Economics of Pollution Control Readings: Ch. 7

X. March 23rd–27th

Economics of Pollution Control Readings: Ch. 7

XI. March 30th–April 3rd

Stationary-Source Local and Regional Air Pollution Readings: Ch. 8,

Market-Based Instruments

XII. April 6th –10th

Stationary-Source Local and Regional Air Pollution Readings: Ch. 8,

Market-Based Instruments

XIII. April 13th –17th

Evaluating Trade Offs: Benefit-Cost Analysis and Other Decision- Making Metrics Readings: Ch.3

XIV. April 20th–24th

Common Pool Resources: Commercially Valuable Fisheries

Readings: Ch. 17

Patriots’ Day (April 20th)

Substitute Monday Schedule of Classes (April 22nd)

XV. April 27th –April 30th

Climate Change Readings: Ch. 11-12

Review for the Final Exam – April 29th, Wednesday

Final Week May 4th–8th

**Final Exam- Set by the University Registrar **

1Last Day to DROP Classes (without a ‘W’ grade) is Tuesday, February 24th, 2026, and Last Day to DROP Classes

(with a ‘W’ grade) is Friday, April 3rd, 2026.

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