| Institute of Food and Resource Economics | |||||||||||||
| Earliest Possible Year | MSc. 1 year to MSc. 2 year | ||||||||||||
| Duration | One block | ||||||||||||
| Credits | 7.5 (ECTS) | ||||||||||||
| Course Level | MSc | ||||||||||||
| Examination | Final Examination written examination Written Exam in Lecturehall All aids allowed Description of Examination: 4-hours written exam in curriculum Weight: Written exam: 100% 7-point scale, external examiner Dates of Exam: 23 January 2009 | ||||||||||||
| Organisation of Teaching | Lectures and theoretical exercises | ||||||||||||
| Block Placement | Block 2 Week Structure: A | ||||||||||||
| Teaching Language | English | ||||||||||||
| Optional Prerequisites | 290037 290013 Environmental and Natural Resource Economics 290042 Applied Econometrics | ||||||||||||
| Restrictions | None | ||||||||||||
| Course Contents | |||||||||||||
| The many services provided by the environment contribute to human wellbeing directly as well as indirectly by supporting productive activities. However, the characteristics of environmental benefits imply that they cannot usually be traded in markets. The absence of economic incentives in terms of prices means that political intervention is required to guarantee a socially optimal supply of environmental services. Economic valuation methods and cost-benefit analysis provide tools to assess the benefits and cost of environmental policies and projects. The primary purpose is to support environmental policy making. The core components of the course are: - Markets, general equilibrium and Pareto optimality - Preferences and welfare measures - Goods characteristics and value concepts - Discounting and risk - Principles for valuing human life and health - Production function approaches to economic valuation - Revealed preference approaches including Travel Cost Methods and Hedonic Value Methods - Stated preference methods including Contingent Valuation and Choice Modelling - Benefit transfer - Cost-benefit analysis - Standard conversion factor and tax dead-weight loss - Case studies to illustrate the application of valuation methods and cost-benefit analysis. | |||||||||||||
| Teaching And Learning Methods | |||||||||||||
| Teaching is in the form of lectures and exercises. Lectures present the essential elements of the curriculum. In the exercises the participants will have the opportunity to apply the methodologies and techniques introduced and to analyse environmental policy problems. | |||||||||||||
| Learning Outcome | |||||||||||||
| The central themes of the course are the methodologies and techniques applied in economic valuation and cost-benefit analyses and the underlying economic theory. Economic valuation and cost-benefit analysis are being increasingly applied as support for environmental policy decisions. Health policy-making is another important field of application. The skills and competencies acquired in this course are relevant for employment in private companies, public administrations, consultancies and non-governmental organisations. Having successfully completed the course the participant is expected to be able to: Knowledge: - Explain the welfare economic principles underlying economic valuation methods and cost-benefit analysis - Reflect on the validity and limitations of welfare economic theory in political and ethical contexts - Describe the different economic valuation methods and the analytical approaches to cost-benefit analysis - Reflect on the relevance and limitations of valuation methods and cost-benefit analysis in relation to various environmental goods and services, human life, etc. Skills: - Identify relevant approaches to economic valuation studies and cost-benefit analyses in specific analytical settings - Carry out valuation exercises and cost-benefit analyses using adequate statistical and quantitative techniques - Evaluate the validity of the quantitative results obtained in valuation studies and cost-benefit analyses. Competences: - Explain the relevance and limitations of economic valuation methods and cost-benefit analysis in different policy settings - Discuss scientific and political disagreements in relation to economic valuation and cost-benefit analysis. | |||||||||||||
| Course Litterature | |||||||||||||
| - Bateman, Ian J. et al.: Economic Valuation with Stated Preference Techniques: A Manual, Edward Elgar, 2002. - Freeman, A. M.: The Measurement of Environmental and Resource Values, 2nd Edition, Resources for the Future, 2003. - Johansson, P.-O.: Cost-benefit analysis of environmental change, Cambridge University Press, 1993. - Layard, R. & Glaister, S. (Eds.) (1994): Cost-Benefit Analysis, Cambridge University Press. - Pearce, David, Ben Groom, Cameron Hepburn & Phoebe Koundouri: Valuing the Future. Recent advances in social discounting, World Economics, Vol. 4, No. 2 April-June 2003: pp 121-141. | |||||||||||||
| Course Coordinator | |||||||||||||
| Alex Dubgaard, adu@life.ku.dk, Institute of Food and Resource Economics/Environmental Economics and Rural Development Div., Phone: 35332280 | |||||||||||||
| Study Board | |||||||||||||
| Study Committee NSN | |||||||||||||
| Course Scope | |||||||||||||
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