ENVS 1500

An Introduction to the Economics of Environmental and Natural Resources

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2024-2025 Catalog. Courses of Study 2024-2025 is scheduled to publish mid-June.

This course provides an introduction to the economic foundations for public decision-making regarding environmental quality and natural resources. Emphasis is placed on how basic tools of economic analysis can be used to identify sources of environmental problems and solutions to these problems. Topics to be covered include "individual hand" concepts underlying market success, market failure with particular focus on public goods and externalities, benefit-cost analysis and non-market valuation, incentive-based policies for controlling pollution, and economic aspects of renewable and non-renewable resources.

Forbidden Overlaps Forbidden Overlap: due to an overlap in content, students will receive credit for only one course in the following group: AEM 1500, AEM 2500, ENVS 1500, ENVS 2500.

Permission Note Enrollment preference given to: E&S majors. Not open to: Dyson School students.

Course Attribute (CU-SBY)

Last 4 Terms Offered 2025SP, 2024SP, 2023SP, 2022SP

Outcomes

• Understand how economic incentives influence individual and group behavior and how this knowledge can be used to explain and address environmental challenges.
• Develop the ability to identify the range of potential economic costs and benefits of a particular environmental policy and the array of economic tools that can be used to estimate these costs and benefits.
• Improve critical thinking skills to assess the tradeoffs inherent to a broad range of contemporary environmental issues.

Distribution Category (SBA-AG)

When Offered Spring.

Comments Students who have already taken Introductory Microeconomics should enroll in ENVS 2500. 

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