Economia do Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais

Objectives

Understand the relationship between economic activity and the biophysical environment. Learn the fundamentals of macroeconomic theory: national accounts; theory of economic growth. Learn the fundamentals of microeconomic theory: consumer theory; producer theory; Market balance. Learn the economic theory approach to the environment, namely the economy of pollution and natural resources. Apply the economic approach to the environment to practical cases.

Syllabus

Sustainable development and the thermodynamic basis of the economy. Macroeconomics: national accounts; economic growth theory; capital, labour, total factor productivity and energy. Consumer theory: budget constraint; preferences; utility maximisation, choice; consumer surplus. Multi-criteria analysis. Producer theory: production functions; profit maximisation; supply; producer surplus. Market structures. Types of goods, market failures and externalities. Intertemporal comparisons: price indices; discount rates; project financial evaluation. Ethical foundations (utilitarianism; libertarianism; Kant, Raws). Natural resource economics. Pollution economics: the efficient level of pollution; pollution and economic policy; the Coase theorem; economic instruments for pollution control. Valuation of environmental resources: dimensions of value; techniques for the valuation of environmental resources. Static constrained optimisation: the Langrange multipliers method.

Cross Competence Component

Critical thinking, teamwork, translating quantitative results into narrative form (10%).

Laboratorial Component

No laboratory component.

Programming And Computing Component

No programming and computing component.

Ethical Principles

All members of a group are responsible for the group’s work. In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used. In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.