The Economics of Climate Change
Institution
Business, Economics, and Social Sciences
Department
Sozialökonomie
Teaching staff
Dr. Hendrik Bruns
SDG-topic cluster
Climate change
Comments/contents
This seminar will look at the global problem of climate change, as well as possible solution instruments from an economics perspective. The seminar will consist of two parts. In the first part (the first four weeks), the problem of climate change will be introduced from an economics perspective. This will include aspects of modeling the problem as well as possible economic policy instruments, such as taxes, and cap-and-trade programs. Questions that will be addressed in this seminar are, for example, how much climate change is socially optimal, what is the role of individuals/consumers in mitigating climate change, what is the role of adaptation and climate engineering? How are international climate agreements negotiated? An additional focus will lie on game theoretic concepts to model the problem of climate change behavior, as well as experimental evidence. While some of these concepts and questions will be part of the main lecture, others will be presented by students in input presentations. This is part two. While a list with topics and literature will be provided, students are also encouraged to think of own topics and to independently create a research question. Each student will have to write an essay on the topic of the presentation until the end of the semester.
Learning objectives
At the end of this seminar, students should know and understand how economics understands and models the societal problem of climate change, what economic solutions to this problem are, and how they might be enhanced or complemented.
Didactic concept
The first part of the seminar will consist of input of the lecturer. The second part will consist of student presentations and discussions of the respective topics.
Semester
SoSe 19
Center for a Sustainable University
Mittelweg 177
20148 Hamburg
www.nachhaltige.uni-hamburg.de