wir361 - Environment and inequality: socioeconomic linkages and policy instruments

Keine/none

After the course, students should be able to: 

• understand the relevance of addressing inequality and environmental issues from an economic perspective
• know the primary measurements and indicators for inequality and environmental issues
• know the main policy instruments available to tackle inequality and environmental challenges
• understand the multifaceted relationships between inequality and environmental policy
• understand and apply state-of-the-art economic methods to analyze the implications of inequality and environmental policies
• write their research paper on a topic of their choice

Inequality and environmental matters are multidimensional, intertwined, and complex. They might unfold self-enforcing effects on human welfare, affecting economic growth, development, environment, social and political stability, health, education, and other fields.
The current trends of inequality within and between countries are worrisome. At the same time, global warming and climate change severely and unequally affect human well-being and economies. Reducing poverty and inequality and fighting climate change – as central elements of the sustainable development goals (2030 Agenda) – should, thus, rank high on policy agendas. However, while some policy measures designed to reduce poverty and inequality could negatively affect the environment, environmental policies often cause undesirable distributional effects. Indeed, the distributive effects (‘incidence’) are becoming increasingly relevant for the political feasibility of environmental policies addressing, for example, climate change or biodiversity loss. Against this background, a more holistic approach integrating climate actions with measures to reduce poverty and inequality is necessary. In this course, we study these issues by applying and extending state-of-the-art environmental economics methods to analyze, understand and manage the distributional implications of environmental policies.
Structure of the course:

• The lecture covers basic knowledge of inequality and environmental economics and policy
• The lectures will also encompass interactive sections with discussion rounds and educational games
• In the seminar, students will be encouraged and supported to stepwise develop their projects (e.g., analyzing the distributional impacts of the German carbon tax introduced in 2021 or addressing potential environmental impacts of fighting inequality in Latin America)
• During the seminar, students present their research sketches and work in progress
• Finally, in a block course, students present their final paper in the style of a scientific conference

Chancel, L., & DeBevoise, M. B. (2020). Unsustainable inequalities: Social justice and the environment. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Piketty, T. (2015). The Economics of Inequality (Translation Edition). Harvard University Press.
or
Piketty, T. (2020). Ökonomie der Ungleichheit: Eine Einführung (S. Lorenzer, Übers.; 3. Aufl.). C.H.Beck.
The CORE team, The Economy. Available at: https://www.core-econ.org. [Accessed on 07.04.2022]

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