LECTURES IN APPLIED ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS AND POLICY

This book presents a series of lectures on applied environmental economics and policy covering the following issues: environmental cost–benefit analysis; ecosystem services; ecosystems biodiversity and the economy; and sustainability.

The first part introduces basic concepts in environmental cost–benefit analysis and explains in detail the choice of the discount rate. Distributional issues and assessment of risk involved in decision-making criteria, using tools such as sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo simulations, are discussed.

The second part of the lectures deals with ecosystem services and analyzes the concepts of total economic value and quasi-option value. It presents the two landmark global initiatives on ecosystem services: the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity. The various methods and approaches for valuing ecosystem services, using revealed and stated preference valuation methods along with their advantages and disadvantages, are explored.

In the third part, the links between ecological and economic systems are explored along with the economics of biodiversity where biodiversity-related issues such as metrics, valuation, conservation, and policy design are discussed.

The fourth and final part of the lectures deals with sustainability. It covers issues related to measuring sustainable development at the macro level, along with corporate sustainability, and takes a brief look at environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting.

Contents:

• Some Basics in Cost–Benefit Analysis:
  • Cost–Benefit Analysis: The Basic Concepts
  • Discounting
  • Distribution Issues and Benefits Transfer
  • Cost–Benefit Analysis: Risk Assessment
• Ecosystem Services:
  • Total Economic Value
  • Valuation of Ecosystem Services
  • Revealed Preference Methods
  • Valuing Health and Life Risks
  • Stated Preference Approaches
• Ecosystems, Biodiversity, and the Economy:
  • The Coevolution of Ecological and Economic Systems
  • Biodiversity Concepts and Valuation
• Sustainability:
  • Defining and Measuring Sustainability
  • Sustainability at the Corporate Level
  • Sustainability and Development

Readership: Advanced undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and practitioners in the fields of cost–benefit analysis, ecosystem services, environmental valuation and environmental reporting.

Key Features:

• Combines applied issues of cost–benefit analysis, ecosystem services and their valuation and sustainability at the country and firm level, providing an important tool for analyzing general environmental, conservation and sustainability projects
• Presents sustainability issues both at the macroeconomic and the corporate level which is useful in the discussion of conceptual and measurement issues relating to environmental reporting