The objective of this project is to assess the student’s critical thinking, diagnostic capabilities, and decision‐making attitudes through a deeper analysis of some concepts from environmental economi cs supported by good practices.

In particular, the project aims to evaluate student’s capacity to analyse the possible use of environm ental economics theory and tools in business and other organizations’ practices and decision making processes. Furthermore, it aims to measure their ability to recognize and analyse links between con crete experiences and strategies and the general principles of environmental economics and sustaina ble development covered in the course.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Many of the concepts, mechanisms and techniques developed by environmental economics are used in real policies and measures to make public choices.

Choose one of the assignments reported below, and write an essay in which the candidates have to make sure they:

1. clarify the economic rationale for the instruments that either are, or need to be, adopted (e.g. taxes, charges, fees, thresholds, );
2. provide real figures from case studies available in the international literature from countries, regions or cities wherein economic instruments have been adopted;
3. draw some conclusions on the efficiency and/or effectiveness of the instruments discussed in the essay, and draw some recommendations (based on fact checking) for improving the quality of the results achieved so

Assignments:

1. …. Discuss how the problem has been addressed in at least two  different countries highlighting the difference between the theory of the determination of the tax rate and the practice adopted. If figures are available analyse the trend of tax revenues over at least a 5-years period.

(Possible sources of data and case studies: OECD Environmental Country Review (ECR) Programme  http://www.oecd.org/environment/country-reviews/ , UNECE EPR Programme  https://www.unece.org/env/epr.html , UNEP:  http://web.unep.org/greeneconomy/sites/unep.org.greeneconomy/files/1_ian_parry_environmental_t   axes.pdf , IMF: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2012/wp12180.pdf, national governmental and EU reports, e.g.  https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/sites/taxation/files/resources/documents/taxation/gen_info/ec   onomic_analysis/tax_papers/taxation_paper_19.pdf    )

2. Public goods are notoriously undersupplied in our societies which often means that too few financial resources are allocated to Natural Parks and Protected Areas are telling examples of environmental public goods presenting significant problems in their financing and management. Starting from the theory of public environmental goods, define the exact type of good a protected area or park represents, explain on the basis of economic theory why a problem of undersupply persists on the supply of nature protection and – also on the basis of your knowledge of economic instruments – provide some suggestions on how a protected area could be funded. You are encouraged to use examples and figures from literature and case-studies.

(Some possible sources of data and case studies are reported below, that candidates are encouraged to widen:  https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/2f7eca80498391708494d6336b93d75f/VP_National%2BPar   ks.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=2f7eca80498391708494d6336b93d75f ,

http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00HV6Z.pdf , https://www.iucn.org/content/sustainable-financing-   protected-areas , https://www.cbd.int/financial/finplanning/p-planfinancing-iucn.pdf,  https://www.cbd.int/financial/privatesector/g-privatthird.pdf     )