Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica "Cognetti de Martiis"

The NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT course is taught by M. Bagliani. It aims at providing the basic economic concepts of natural resource management along with the analytical tools needed to make them operational. The course presupposes competences acquired in the courses of Governance of economic processes, Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences, Environmental Economics.

Students should reach a good knowledge of the course topics and be able to thoughtfully use the tools acquired. The acquisition of these skill will be subject to verification as described in the exam section.

Written exam (duration 90 minutes). The exam text includes:

(a) a series of True/false questions, whose objective is to evaluate the extent to which a student has covered all fundamental topics;
(b) a brief exercise aimed at testing a student's capacity to apply the conceptual tools acquired during the course;
(c) an open question, out of a choice of two, whose objective is verifying the depth of a student's knowledge, his/her engagement in further reading, and the matured critical capability.

One or two tutorial classes will be offered to help students test their ability to solve analytical problems pertaning optimal exploitation models. 

The programme covers the following topics:

- Socio-ecological systems and ecosystem services.

- Role of natural resources in economic development.

- Efficient and optimal use of natural capital: non-renewable resources.

- Efficient and optimal use of natural capital: renewable resources.

- The state of world marine resources and their management policies

- The state of global forest resources and their management policies.

- Water supply. Scarcity: models and management scenarios.

- Biodiversity loss, resilience and stability of ecosystems.

- Fossil fuels: scarcity, environmental impacts, costs and prospects of exhaustion. Security of supply. Efficient and optimal management of reserves. 

- Alternative energies: hydrogen, renewables, biofuels. Technological innovation and competitiveness.

The bibliography will consist of articles published in scientific journals, documents of international organizations and chapters from the following textbooks, according to specific instructions that will be provided during the course.


- Perman R., Ma Y., J. Mc Gilvray, Common M. (2011), Natural Resources and Environmental Economics, Harrow, UK: Pearson education, 4th edition.
- Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), Washington: Island Press
- Baland JM and JP Platteau (1996), Halting Degradation and Natural Resources, Oxford: OUP.


A detailed syllabus will be provided during the classes and will be available on the course website. The Teamwork reading list will be made available in class and online under 'Materiale Didattico' (Teaching Material).