ECON542

Course Description

The objective of this course is to introduce graduate students to computational approaches for solving environmental and resource economic models. We will formulate economic problems in computationally tractable form and use techniques from numerical analysis to solve them. In addition to lectures, the course has a computer lab component where students get hands-on training on modeling skills and the use of two software packages (MATLAB is free to UNM students and GAMS has a free demo version for all students). There is a required research project, where you will adapt one of the models we learn in class to solve an environmental/resource problem of your own interest. This requirement will help prepare students to undertake publication-quality research (e.g., your field paper).

Tentative topics to cover:

Environmental Economic Modeling in GAMS

--Partial equilibrium modeling

--Game theoretic modeling (e.g., international climate negotiations)

--Computable general equilibrium modeling

--Neo-classical growth modeling

--Climate Change Integrated Assessment Modeling

Optimal control and dynamic programming in MATLAB

--Nonrenewable resource management (e.g., mine)

--Renewable resource management (e.g., water, fishery)