Spring 2025

Below are links to articles on the reading list that are available on-line through the Syracuse University library. The articles are organized by date and subject, as on the syllabus. For articles unavailable at the library, the articles are available through the course in Blackboard. A link to Blackboard is provided. Note that this is not a complete syllabus, as it does not include chapters in the textbook or optional reading.

Because these articles are made available through the SU library, they are only available to SU students. If you are using a computer on campus, the links will take you directly to the article. If you are off-campus, you will be taken to a sign-in page so that you can access library materials remotely.

January 13 – What is Environmental Economics?
Fullerton, Don and Robert N. Stavins (1998) “How Economists See the Environment,” Nature, 395, 433-434.

DePillis, Lydia, “Economists Look Harder at Climate,” The New York Times, January 24, 2024, B1, B5.

DePillis, Lydia, “Industries Balk at Cost of Cleaner Air,” The New York Times, November 14, 2023, B1, B4.

January 15 – Market Failures
Ostrom, Elinor (2009), “A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems,” Science, 325(5939), 419-422.

Davenport, Coral, “What if Farmers Were Taxed on Water? In California, Some Are,” The New York Times, January 4, 2024, A1, A13.

Turkewitz, Julie, “This Land Is Your Land, and Yours, and Yours ….,” The New York Times, September 29, 2017, A10.

“A rising tide,” The Economist, September 20, 2008, pp. 97-98.

“Firefall and footfall,” The Economist, February 26, 2022.

January 22 – Modeling Pollution
Eder, Steve, “One Apple Orchard. 5,000 Government Rules,” The New York Times, December 28, 2017, A1.

Wald, Matthew L., “Fossil Fuels’ Hidden Cost Is in Billions, Study Says,” The New York Times, October 20, 2009, p. A16.

“Giving up carbs,” The Economist, February 27, 2021, 60-61.

“We were expecting you,” The Economist, September 4, 2021, 73.

January 27– Should the Government Intervene?
Fowlie, Meredith, “Only Who Should Prevent Forest Fires?” Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, November 13, 2018.

Breeden, Aurelien, “Rooster’s Noise Lawsuit a Win for France’s Barnyard Bellowers,” The New York Times, January 25, 2021, A11.

Fuller, Thomas and Ivan Penn, “No Fires Yet, But California Is Paying Now,” The New York Times, July 22, 2019, A1, A13.

“Building in Wildland-Urban Interface Areas Boosts Wildfire Costs,”NBER Digest, March 2020.

January 29 – Command and Control Policies for the Environment
Aldy, Joseph E. and William A. Pizer (2016), “Alternative Metrics for Comparing Domestic Climate Change Mitigation Efforts and the Emerging International Climate Policy Architecture,” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 10(1), 3-24.

Sallee, James, “What is a Car?” Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, April 10, 2023.

Lipton, Eric, “E.P.A. Offers Lifeline to the dirtiest Coal Plants,” The New York Times, August 25, 2018, A1.

“Marching bans,” The Economist, October 3, 2020, 64.

February 3 & 5 – Emissions Fees and Subsidies
Davis, Lucas, ““How Do We Pump Up the Impact of Heat Pump Subsidies?” Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, September 3, 2024.

Davis, Lucas, “More Good News for EV Buyers” Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, October 16, 2023.

Fowlie, Meredith and Baylis, Patrick, “Oh, Canada” Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, October 21, 2024.

Klenert, David, Linus Mattauch, Emmanuel Combet, Ottmar Edenhofer, Cameron Hepburn, Ryan Rafaty, and Nicholas Stern (2018), “Making carbon prices work for citizens,” Nature Climate Change, 8, 669-677.

Tankersley, Jim, “When to Buy Electric Car? Rules Just Got Trickier.”The New York Times, August 19, 2022, B6.

“The perfect carbon price,” The Economist, June 3, 2023, 62.

February 10 & 12 – Tradable Permits
Fowlie, Meredith, “Carbon Offsets Get a Green Light in Glasgow”, Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, November 22, 2021..

Schmalensee, Richard and Robert Stavins (2017), “Lessons Learned from Three Decades of Experience with Cap-and-Trade,” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 11(1), 59-79.

Gillis, Justin, “In Price Tag on Carbon, Plans to Save the Planet,” The New York Times, May 30, 2014, A1, A20-A21.

Plumer, Brad, “White House Offers Tools to Assess Carbon Offsets,” The New York Times, May 29, 2024, B4.

“Cleaning up,” The Economist, February 27, 2021, 57.

“Selling a new CORSIA,” The Economist, July 4, 2020, 57-58.

“Up in the air,”The Economist, May 28, 2022, 64-65.

February 17 – Policy Instrument Choice: Theory and Air Pollution
Goulder, Lawrence H. and Ian W.H. Parry (2008), “Instrument Choice in Environmental Policy,” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2(2), 152-174.

Pindyck, Robert S. (2007), “Uncertainty in Environmental Economics,” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 1(1), 45-65.

Borenstein, Severin, “Understanding and Refining Emissions Markets”, Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, July 6, 2020.

February 19 – Policy Instrument Choice: Water
Fisher-Vanden, Karen and Sheila Olmstead (2013), “Moving Pollution Trading from Air to Water: Potential, Problems, and Prognosis,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 27(1), 147-172.

Barringer, Felicity, “A Plan to Curb Farm-to-Watershed Pollution of Chesapeake Bay,” The New York Times, April 13, 2007, p. A10.

Friedman, Lisa, “EPA Says ‘Forever Chemicals’ Must Be Removed From Tap Water,” The New York Times, April 10, 2024, A10.

Plumer, Brad and Nadja Popovich, “Poor Americans Exposed to Unsafe Water, study Shows,” The New York Times, February 13, 2018, A10.

“Good job, Newark,” The Economist, April 17, 2021, 27.

February 24 & 26 – Behavioral Economics and Policy: Energy Efficiency
Gillingham, Kenneth and Karen Palmer (2014), “Bridging the Energy Efficiency Gap: Policy Insights from Economic Theory and Empirical Evidence,” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 8(1), 18-38.

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management Point/Counterpoint on Internalities:

Allcott, Hunt and Cass R. Sunstein (2015), “Regulating Internalities,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 34(3):698-705.

Mannix, Brian F. and Susan E. Dudley (2015), “The Limits of Irrationality as a Rationale for Regulation,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 34(3):705-712.

Allcott, Hunt and Cass R. Sunstein (2015), “Counterpoint to Six Potential Arguments to ‘Regulating Internalities’,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 34(3):712-715.

Mannix, Brian F. and Susan E. Dudley (2015), “Please Don’t Regulate My Internalities,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 34(3):715-718.

Davis, Lucas, “Here Come the Lumens,” Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, March 27, 2023.

Jack, Kelsey, “Do Monthly Bills Undermine the Impact of Carbon Pricing?” Our 2 Cents Blog, July 10, 2019.

Wolfram, Catherine. “Closing the Energy Efficiency Gap for Low-Income Households”, Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, October 21, 2019.

February 26 & March 3 – Distributional Effects of Environmental Policies
Banzhaf, Spencer, Lala Ma, and Christopher Timmins (2019), “Environmental Justice: The Economics of Race, Place, and Pollution,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 33(1), 185-208.

Bennear, Lori Snyder (2022), “Energy Justice, Decarbonization, and the Clean Energy Transformation,” Annual Review of Resource Economics, 14, 647-668.

Weber, Jeremy G. (2020), “How Should We Think about Environmental Policy and Jobs? An Analogy with Trade Policy and an Illustration from U.S. Coal Mining,” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 14(1), 44-66.

Fowlie, Meredith, “Carbon Pricing, Environmental Justice, Compromise” Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, August 7, 2023.

Popp, David, “Government investments can smooth worker transitions in a green economy, but must be used carefully,” Smart Prosperity Institute Guest Blog, June 25, 2020.

Raimi, Daniel, “Jobs, Equity, and Efficiency: Reconciling Priorities In a Transition to a Clean Energy Economy,” Resources, October 2020.

Scheiber, Noam, “A Sticking Point in Climate Plan,” The New York Times, December 13, 2021, B1.

Zhong, Raymond and Popovich, Nadja, “How Dangerous Air Reflects Racist Policy From 8 Decades Ago,” The New York Times, March 11, 2022, A14.

March 5 – Revealed Preference Techniques
“Analyzing Benefits,” Chapter 7 in Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses, Environmental Protection Agency, December 2010, sec. 7.1-7.3.1.

Auffhammer, Maximilian. “To See Or Not To See,” Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, March 25, 2024..

Colmer, Jonathan (2020), “What is the meaning of (statistical) life? Benefit-cost analysis in the time of COVID-19,” Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 36: S56-S63.

Applebaum, Binyamin, “A Life’s Value? It May Depend on the Agency,” The New York Times, February 17, 2011, A1, A3.

March 17 – Stated Preference Techniques
“Analyzing Benefits,” Chapter 7 in Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses, Environmental Protection Agency, December 2010, sec. 7.3.2.

Bishop, Richard C. et al. (2017) “Putting a Value on injuries to natural assets: The BP oil spill,” Science 356, 253-254.

Kling, Catherine L., Daniel J. Phaneuf, and Jinhua Zhao. (2012), “From Exxon to BP: Has Some Number Become Better than No Number?,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26(4), 3-26.

March 19 – Estimating Benefits
“Analyzing Benefits,” Chapter 7 in Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses, Environmental Protection Agency, December 2010, sec. 7.4-7.5.

Keiser, David, Catherine Kling, and Daniel J. Phaneuf (2019) “The Social Cost of Water Pollution,” Resources, issue 201..

Levinson, Arik (2018), “Mercury Air Toxics Standards: Co-Benefits and the Courts in U.S. Cost-Benefit Analysis,” Case Studies in the Environment, 1-10.

Muller, Nicholas Z. and Robert Mendelsohn (2010), “Weighing the Value of a Ton of Pollution,” Regulation, 33(2), 20-24.

Fowlie, Meredith, “What Just Happened to the Mercury Rule?” Energy Institute at Hass blog, April 20, 2020.

Frakt, Austin “Pollution Takes Long-Term Economic Toll,” The New York Times, November 28, 2018, A15.

Plummer, Brad, “Will Cleaner Cars Lead to More Traffic Deaths? Experts Have Doubts,” The New York Times, August 3, 2018, A15.

“Carrion call,” The Economist, August 26, 2023, 77.

“The rule of more,” The Economist, February 18, 2012, 77.

March 24 – The Costs of Environmental Policies
Harrington, Winston, Richard D. Morgenstern, and Peter Nelson (2000), “On the Accuracy of Regulatory Cost Estimates,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 19(2), 297-322.

Shapiro, Joseph and Reed Walker, “Is Air Pollution Regulation Too Stringent?” Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, December 14, 2020.

March 26 & 31 – Making Use of Value Measures – Benefit-Cost Analysis
Krutillia, Kerry and John D. Graham. 2012. “Are Green Vehicles Worth the Extra Cost? The Case of Diesel-Electric hybrid Technology for Urban Delivery Vehicles,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 31(3): 501-532.

Prest, Brian, “Discounting 101” Resources for the Future, January 6, 2020.

Prest, Brian C., William A. Pizer, and Richard G. Newell (2021), “Improving Discounting in the Social Cost of Carbon,” Resources 208: 12-15.

Oreskes, Naomi and Nicholas Stern, “Climate Change’s Unknown Costs,” The New York Times, October 26, 2019, A27.

Tankersley, Jim, “Regulators Get New Set of Priorities,” The New York Times, November 10, 2023, B1, B5.

“Is RFK junior right to say America allows more toxins than the EU?,” The Economist, November 22, 2024 (online).

“The uncertainty of genius,” The Economist, September 7, 2019, 68.

“Unknown unknowns,” The Economist, July 15, 2023, 62.

April 2 – Energy Pricing
Perloff, Jeffrey M., “Exhaustible Resources,” Microeconomics: Fourth Edition, pp. 562-568. available in Blackboard

Davis, Lucas, “U.S Power Plant Emissions Down 45% Since 2010,” Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, December 10, 2018.

Varian, Hal R., “The Rapidly Changing Signs at the Gas Station Show Markets at Work,” The New York Times, August 24, 2006, p. C3.

“The bottom of the barrel,” The Economist, July 18, 2020, 51-52.

“Freedom lighters,” The Economist, November 12, 2022, 60.

“Oil kings,” The Economist, October 19, 2024, S10-S11.

April 7 – Alternative Energy Technologies
Davis, Lucas W., Catherine Hausman, and Nancy L. Rose (2023), “Transmission Impossible? Prospects for Decarbonizing the US Grid,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 37(4), 155-180.

Gross, Samantha, “Why are fossil fuels so hard to quit?” Brookings Essay, June 2020.

Wolfram, Catherine, “What Drove Solar PV Price Reductions?” Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, September 9, 2019.

Plumer, Brad, “Glut of Natural Gas Pressures Nuclear Power, and Climate Goals, Too,” The New York Times, June 14, 2017, A17.

Plumer, Brad, “U.S. Solar Goal Stalled by Wait on Creaky Grid,” The New York Times, February 24, 2023, A1, A15.

Plumer, Brad and Nadja Popovich, “Shipping-Container-Size Batteries are Revamping U.S. Energy,” The New York Times, May 10, 2024, A1, A13.

“Cell-side analysis,” The Economist, August 20, 2022, 57-59.

“Green dollars,” The Economist, September 23, 2023, 66.

“Not-so-slow burn” The Economist, May 23, 2020, 49-50.

“Solar eclipsed,” The Economist, December 22, 2018, 86-88.

April 9 – Energy Technology Policy
Popp, David, (2019) “Promoting Clean Energy Innovation,” ifoDICE Report, 17(4), 30-35.

Ewing, Jack, “Truck Makers Face Choice: Go Battery or Hydrogen?” The New York Times, April 12, 2022, B1.

Halper, Evan, “Creating clean hydrogen power is hard. Biden’s new subsidies show why,” The Washington Post, January 3, 2025.

Nelson, Eshe and Adam Satariano, “Energy Fixes Exist. But They Need Money,” The New York Times, April 19, 2022, B1.

Morenne, Benoît, “Occidental’s Green Bet to Keep Pumping Oil,” The Wall Street Journal, April 11, 2023, A1.

Porter, Eduardo, “Behind Drop in Oil Prices, A Federal Role,” The New York Times, January 21, 2015, B1, B9.

April 14 – Growth and the Environment
“An Analytical Framework for Inclusive Green Growth,” chapter 1 in Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathway to Sustainable Development, World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012.

Heal, Geoffrey, “Reflections—Defining and Measuring Sustainability,” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Winter 2012, 6(1), 147-163.

“Capital pains,” The Economist, July 18, 2020, 73.

“Looking beyond GDP,” The Economist, September 17, 2022, 28-29.

“The natural question,” The Economist, February 6, 2021, 62.

“Sovereign wealth, sovereign whims,” The Economist, June 15, 2019, 40.

“Wrangling over white gold,” The Economist, May 6, 2023, 25.

April 16 – Environmental Issues in Developing and Emerging Economies
Jayachandra, Seema (2021), “How Economic Development Influences the Environment,” NBER Working Paper #29191.

Wolfram, Catherine, “Good Morning Vietnam, Energywise,” Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, April 23, 2018.

Laval, Shola, “As Economies Get Bigger, Air Pollution Falls in Africa,” The New York Times, February 9, 2021, A9.

Searcey, Dionne and Ashley Gilberison, “Depleting Rainforest, Branch by Branch, for Fuel,” The New York Times, July 14, 2022, A1.

“Development v climate,” The Economist, July 1, 2023, 54.

“Festival of darkness,” The Economist, November 9, 2019.

“Fire escape,” The Economist, May 8, 2021, 46-47.

“The light continent,” The Economist, June 22, 2024, 50-51.

“Powering Africa,” The Economist, November 5, 2022, 43-45.

“When the smoke clears,” The Economist, October 12, 2024, 59-60.

April 21 – Policies to Promote Environmental Protection in Developing Countries
Busch, Jonah and Kalifi Ferretti-Gallon (2023), “What Drives and Stops Deforestation, Reforestation, and Forest Degradation? An Updated Meta-analysis,” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 17(2), 217-250.

Kerr, Suzi C., “The Economics of International Policy Agreements to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation,” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Winter 2013, 7(1), pp. 47-66.

Emont, Jon, “New Limits Could Cut Rainforest Carbon Offsets,” The Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2022, B11..

“A day late and a dollar short,” The Economist, November 25, 2023, 64-65.

“A pale shade of green,” The Economist, March 9, 2019, 37-38.

“Africa’s carbon boom,” The Economist, December 2, 2023, 40-42.

“Hot tempers,” The Economist, November 26, 2022, 49.

“Rainforest rewards,” The Economist, September 21, 2024, 29-30.

“Up a tree,” The Economist, November 6, 2021, 54-55.

April 23 – Trade and the Environment
Copeland, Brian R., Joseph S. Shapiro, and M. Scott Taylor (2021), “Globalization and the Environment,” NBER Working Paper #28797 (sections 1, 4-4.1.2, 4.2, and 5 required. The remaining sections are optional.)

Campbell, Erin, Anne McDarrris and William Pizer, “Border Carbon Adjustments 101,” Resources for the Future Explainer Series, November 10, 2021.

Elkerbout, Milan, Katarina Nhrkorn, and William Pizer, “Climate and Trade in a World of Resurgent Industrial Policy,” Resources Magazine, Fall 2024.

“C-BAM,” The Economist, October 12, 2024, 58-59.

“Making trade greener,” The Economist, October 9, 2021, S10-S11.

“Out of sight,” The Economist, October 19. 2019, 72-73.

“Unintended consequences,” The Economist, July 6, 2024, 38-39.

April 28 – The Political Economy of Environmental Policy
Meckling, Jonas et al. (2015), “Winning coalitions for climate policy,” Science, 349(6253), 1170-1171.

Tabuchi, Hiroko and Danny Hakim, “Improving Air Quality With Better Chemistry,” The New York Times, October 17, 2016, B1, B5.

“Not green but clean,” The Economist, January 14, 2023, 62.

“The best is the enemy of the green,” The Economist, December 5, 2015, 75.

“Welcome to the green swamp,” The Economist, April 15, 2023, 53-54.