Environmental Economics and Policy 1
Economics 3

Instructor:  Peter Berck,
pberck@berkeley.edu  Home Page
224 Giannini Hall
Office Hour:  Friday at 1030-1130

Lecture:  M W and F at 2-3PM in 390 Hearst

 

Sections: M 9-10A Wheeler 130; M 3-4 Wheeler 20, ; W 4-5 Wheeler 108, W 5-6 Wheeler 30

GSI's: Fernanda Chacon (Mon. at 9 and Wed at 4) fernanda_chacon@berkeley.edu ;  Claire Duquennois (Mon at 3 and Wed at 5)  claire.duquennois@berkeley.edu Leopold Biardeau  leopold.biardeau@berkeley.edu 

GSI office hours: Fernanda: Thu 10-11am in 236 Giannini and Fri 3-4pm.  in 254 Giannini.

Claire: Mon 1-2 and Wed 3-4 in 254 Giannini

Leopold Biardieu  T 9-11 in 254 Giannini  M 3P meet after class.

Web Cast:   will be automatically posted to CalCentral, the student portal, on the Class Page for ECON C3. . The bCourses site for ECON C3 will also have the recordings  using the Webcasts tool .

Quizzes:    September 22  and Nov 1

 

Final exam group 6 12/12/17 at 1130AM  (needs to be double checked.)

Problem sets--PS1  PS2   PS3     PS4        PS5.  (Look in the list below for due dates.  Despite dates on the problem sets, these are the current problem sets.)

Who, What, When, Where and Maybe Why  (Class policies--must read!)

Addison Wesley's web site for the book--links to most of the references and other interesting places

 

The text is Berck and Helfand, Economics of the Environment, Addison Wesley 2011.  (ERRATA)

The background photo for this page  is steamboat geyser in Yellowstone.

 

  1.  Supply and Demand *(PowerPoint). (1st and 2nd Class, 23 and 25 aug)  BH2 
  2. Energy Administration Web site
  3. Elasticity.   Covered in First Section p.14
  4. Taxes and Policies* 2nd Class  BH2  (p. 25) pdf   (2nd class, 8/25)
  5. Environmental Taxes--in a comparison of CA and Swedish Environmental Policy
  6. Problem Set 1 due 9/1/17 
  7. A First Look at Market Failures *  (2nd week,8/28- 9/1  BH 3 and finish BH2)
  8. Some Air pollution resources:  EPA's description of the Clean Air Act  California Air Quality Farrell et al on Ethanol
  9. The Stern Review
  10.  Demand, Indifference, and Budget   week 3,  9/6-9/8  BH 4  (Labor Day, only 2 classes)
  11. Problem set 2 due at end of week 3, 9/8
  12. The USDA page on food stamps (now SNAP)
  13.  Consumer Surplus  week 4  BH:5  9/11-15  (move interview questions to next week, finish BH4)
  14. Week 5.  Odds and Ends, Review, Exam. 9/18-9/22
  15. Review 9/202017  :    Review Sheet for Quiz 1 
  16. quiz 1 9/22 
  17. Revealed Preference-- pdf *  week 6  Benefit Estimation BH  6 9/25-29
  18. Stated Preference-- pdf * week 7   BH 7 (actually was 9/27-9/29 with little left over) 10/2-6  (probably start on BH8)
  19. Read "Conservation Reconsidered"  (Use link below to JSTOR--will work from campus IP or you will need to use the library proxy server. (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Help/proxy.html).)  This will be covered in section.
     
    John V. Krutilla
    The American Economic Review, Vol. 57, No. 4. (Sep., 1967), pp. 777-786.
    Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-8282%28196709%2957%3A4%3C777%3ACR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V
  20. Emma Aisbett's notes on Krutilla
  21. Problem Set III  (covers up to chapt 7) Oct 13
  22. Techniques, Isoquants and Cost  pdf  week 8 BH 8 10/9-13 (started on 10/2/2017)
  23. Clean air act
  24. NYT magazine  April 4, 2004  "Changing all the rules" by Bruce Barcott.  Section 6; Column 1; Magazine Desk; Pg. 38 (New Source Performance Standards) 
     AEP billion $ Settlement . New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Oct 9, 2007. pg. C.6
    Environmental Defense Fund v. Duke Energy
    REMEMBER  . (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Help/proxy.html).)   needs to be installed to use the Library from home!!!
  25. Conservation Supply curves  (Laitner et al.)
  26. Costs and Such  BH 9 (price = marginal cost)   week 9 (10/16-20/)
  27. Fixed Costs, etc and Profits, Derivation of Supply Curve  pdf (powerpoint) week 9 or begin week 10  BH 9   (10/23) (finished on 10/16/17).
  28. Problem set 4 on chapt 8 and 9, due Oct 25 
  29. 2016 Review Subjects for Quiz 2   10/30/2017
  30. Quiz 2 Nov 1 2017
  31. Air, High Speed Rail...   (oct 25 2017)
  32. .  Surplus, Welfare, Environment *  (10/18-20) BH 10 and 11
  33. Allocating Pollution Between Firms   Coase Theorem  10/23-10/25 (coase left over for 11/2) BH 10 and 11
  34. open access game 11/2/2017
  35. Materials for a trading game  game sheet  (10/27) 
  36. Ronald Coase  "The Problem of Social Cost" 
  37. Dec 1  Problem set 5 due.  All problems will have been covered in class.
  38. How to Reduce Pollution:  The policy angle  (also the Clean Water Act.) BH  12 and 13 11/6-11/13
  39. Interest Rates and Cost Benefit Analysis.  BH 15 and 14.  11/15-11/17
  40. also see Interest Rates 11/13
  41. Green Accounting   Ch 18.  Nov 27. (not on final in 2017)

 

  1. Sustainability Power Point Presentation  not 2016

 

  1. Final review sheet 2016
  2. Review for Final. Nov 20, 29 and Dec 2
  3. Reading week --review session likely W or F.

 

Learning Goals: 1.  Understand everyday economic problems.  2.  Use economic theory to understand and evaluate policy proposals.  3.  Solve problems with clear solution.  4. Understand economic news.   5.  Learn how and why negative externalities should be controlled.

Problem Sets For 2010

PS1  PS2  PS3  PS4  PS5

 

_____________________Older Material for Reference______________________

 

 

  1. Marginal Product (but fundamentally not necessary to the way we presented the firm)
  2. History of Agricultural Policy: An Outline and the better Ag. Policy Talk (powerpoint)  (Still BH 2)
  3. Look at http://www.ers.usda.gov/Features/FarmBill/ for the current farm bill.  Agricultural Policies ( a list of policies with short explanation of each)  For more info on the Farm Credit System.  Ag Wrapup
  4. Budget Constraints and Food Stamps* (including graphs from class)
  5. Consumer Theory I  The Chosen Bundle  PowerPoint Presentation *  9/8-13  BH 4
  6. Consumer Theory Brief Html
  7. Deriving the Demand Curve*   9/13/2010 BH 4
  8. Price and Quantity Regulation: An Isoquant Story (repeats earlier material)
  9. Some Loose Ends (1999)
  10. Pareto Optimality 2007 version Powerpoint Presentation. Includes a proof that CE is PO and Coase Theorem.
  11. Public Goods  
  12. Exhaustible Resources  BH 17  Dec 2.
  13. Review Dec 4 and Dec 9.
  14. Forestry and Environmental Laws   (2007 version)    Powerpoint.  (quite long.)
  15. Water Primer  Powerpoint
  16. Competition and Environment 
  17. Garbage and California Recycling
  18. Fish and Capital
  19. Notes on International Environment
  20. Isoquants and Techniques*(powerpoint.  has Timmer example) BH 8  (10/7/09)
  21. Isoquants to Cost Curves; Regulation and Isoquants *(powerpoint) (10/12/09)
  22. Isoquants, Factor Demand, Deriving Cost   10/12*
  23. Cost Functions and 
  24. Fixed Costs, Profits, Bankruptcy FC,Profit, Bankruptcy ppt (not 2010)

Summary List of Concepts  Review for Final 06  Final Review of 07 Final Review 08 Final Review 09

There are no answers to final exams.  Only midterms have written out answers.

Sample Exams:  1997 Midterm Exam  1997 Final Exam  2000 Final 2002 Final  2003Final Quiz 2 '04 Ans to Q2 '04

2004 Exam I Answer to Exam I 04 Quiz    Answers   Quiz 1 2006   Answer   Quiz II 06  Quiz II Answer 06  2006Final 2007Midterm Ans2007 QuizI 2008 Ans  Quiz2 2008 ans  Final 08 MidI_09 ans Mid2_09 ans final09  Mid1_2010  ans  Mid2_2010 ans  Final2010  Mid12011 ans Mid2 2011 ans Final 2011 Mid I 2012 ans Mid II 2012 ans Final 2012 mid1 2014 ans midII 2014 ans Final2014  mid1 2015 ans mid2 2015 ans final2015

2016 mid 1  ans   2016 mid 2 ans  2016 final  2017 mid 1  ans  2017 mid 2 ans 2017 final

 

Older Problem Sets

  1. Problem Set 1  
  2. Problem Set 2   
  3. Problem Set 3   
  4. Problem Set 4     (These are from BH and new this year)
  5. Problem Set 5     in pdf in word  (1 old problem and monopoly and 2 from BH)
 

Practice Problems on Cost and Supply(*.pdf) or in.  (word)

Previous Problem Set 4  Previous Problem Set 5