PROJECT APPRAISAL AND COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- MASSIMILIANO MAZZANTI
- Credits
- 7
- Curriculum
- Green economy and sustainability
- Didactic period
- Secondo Semestre
- SSD
- SECS-P/02
Training objectives
- The aim of the course is to provide students with tools and knowledge to develop economic valuation and cost benefit analyses of public/private projects or public policies, with specific attention to the environmental and social impact of such programmes.
Upon course completion students should be able to
- Identify relevant approaches to economic valuation studies and cost-benefit analyses in specific analytical settings
- Carry out economic valuation 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. Prerequisites
- Students should have successfully completed a microeconomic course and a math course.
Specifically students should possess
- basic knowledge of algebra
- ability to write welfare functions
- elements of Statistics and Econometrics Course programme
- The course introduces the basic economic assumptions and procedures in economic valuation and cost-benefit analysis, especially with regards to environmental projects.
The costs and benefits from policy and other changes in economic activity may be evaluated for many different purposes. Governments may be interested in measuring the impact of their policy changes on society as a whole, while private agents may focus on policy changes’ impact on their own welfare and on the welfare of those they care about.
The course is composed of two modules. The first module (32 hours) introduces cost benefit analysis and its basic techniques. The second module (24 hours) has a more empirical approach and applies cost benefit methods to evaluate projects’ environmental impacts, through lectures and seminars by experts. Didactic methods
- Class lectures, exercises and case studies.
Learning assessment procedures
- Written exam
The exam is devoted to test the level of achievement of the previously indicated course objectives. The exam consists of open-ended questions and exercises on all course topics.
Both parts require use of theoretical knowledge acquired during the course and ability to apply the techniques presented during the course.
The final grade is based on the written xam. To pass the exam the student must obtain a minimum score of 18 out of 31. Reference texts
- -- Microeconomic Theory, Mas-Colell, Whinston, Green, 1995
- Cost-benefit analysis and the environment, Pearce, Atkinsons, Mourato, OECD, 2006
- Cost-benefit analysis and the environment, Atkinsons, Mourato, OECD Working Paper 97, 2015
Further material is available at the course Web site:
http://www.unife.it/economia/lm.economics/lectures/project-appraisal-cost-benefit-analysis-for-environment
And on the course Classroom page (codice: gowrrvt)
