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

Objective of the course is acquiring competence on the fundamental concepts and instruments of environmental economics and developing the capacity to transfer such competence into real world applications.

The students, at the end of the course:

1) will have acquired competence on the foundations of an economic approach to environmental issues and on the objectives and instruments of pollution control policies.

2) in particular, they will be able to understand the economic mechanisms underlying the reletionship between the economy and the environment

3) they will be able to critically evaluate interventions by public bodies in this field

4) they will be able to project activities for gathering informations

5) they will be able to communicate problems and solutions, both verbally and by writing

Face-to-face lesson with projections of educational material, class discussion, expert interventions. Due to the Covid emergency it is also possible to follow the lessons in streaming through the Webex platform:

https://unito.webex.com/meet/marco.bagliani (first part of the course)

https://unito.webex.com/meet/simonetta.mazzarino (final part)

Student access to face-to-face lessons can only be done through green pass possession and compulsory seat reservation in the classroom through the software "Student booking". The use of a mask is mandatory in the classroom.

Furthermore the course Moodle will be available for download:

- webex recordings of the lessons;

- powerpoint files of the slides;

- pdf files of the articles discussed in class.

The exams for the 2021-2022 will take place in person with a written test.
Students must meet the conditions for admission to the University, listed on the page dedicated to Alternative teaching (https://www.unito.it/ateneo/gli-speciali/coronavirus-aggiornamenti-la-comunita-universitaria/didattica-alternativa).

Only students who fall into one of the following situations can apply for the remote exam:

• frailty (subjects in possession of the recognition of disability with connotation of gravity and who has a certification issued by the competent medical-legal bodies, certifying a risk condition deriving from immunosuppression or from outcomes from oncological pathologies or from the performance of related life-saving therapies);
• residence outside the region;
• inability to access university facilities for health reasons (mandatory quarantine).

The on-line exam is provided through a written test with an oral integration.

When registering for the exam, it is necessary to enter in the "Notes" field of the exam the indication that the student in question falls into one of the three cases that allow for the remote examination.

The University will carry out random checks - with respect to requests for online exams - to verify what students have self-declared.

Attention: for the online exam, the Moodle course to connect is not the one dedicated to teaching (ECM0025) but the moodle course specifically dedicated to written exams, called " ESAME | Economia dell'ambiente del territorio". Link: https://elearning.unito.it/scuolacle/course/view.php?id=1129

BAGLIANI'S PROGRAM: written exam organized as follows:

• true-false questions and multiple choice questions to ascertain technical knowledge;
• open questions with answers to 30 lines to test contextual knowledge, critical and synthesis skills.

MAZZARINO'S PROGRAM: written exam organized as follows:

• true-false questions and multiple choice questions to ascertain technical knowledge;
• open questions with answers to 20 lines to test contextual knowledge, critical and synthesis skills.

Students attending the course must register both on Campusnet (through the appropriate function on this page) and on Moodle (by accessing Moodle via the button at the bottom of this page), in order to allow the interaction teacher-students.

Main topics:

- Foundations of an economic approach to environmental issues.  Interactions between economic and ecological systems. Passive and active role of the environment towards the economic system. Physics principles and their implications in the economic analysis: the Material Balance Principle.

- Social efficiency and exploitation vs. conservation of the environment. Elements of welfare economics. Choice criteria based on efficiency. Externalities, common goods, public goods: the economic origin of environmental problems.

- Economics of pollution. Instruments for pollution control: standards, emission taxes, subsidies, transferable permits, voluntary instruments, insurance and deposit systems.

- Renewable and non-renewable resources. Efficient use of non-renewable resources

- The problem of consistency between economic growth and the environment. Natural resources and sustainability. Different concepts of sustainability. The hypothesis of the environmental Kuznets curve.

- Relationship between agriculture and environment. Agriculture effects on the environment. Community Agricultural Policy: evolution and current situation. CAP measures to protect the environment

 - Main environmental problems at different spatial scales. International and global pollution issues. International environmental agreements. Acid rain, ozone depletion, climate change. Kyoto protocol and Paris agreement.

- Aprile, Chiarini, Economia dell’ambiente, Mondadori, 2019.

- Others text and paper from scientific journals

- Other texts available on Moodle course

Students attending the course must register both on Campusnet (through the appropriate function on this page) and on Moodle (by accessing Moodle via the button at the bottom of this page), in order to allow the interaction teacher-students.