2017/18 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

SOEE3750 Sustainability Economics in Practice

10 creditsClass Size: 40

Module manager: Dr Julia Martin-Ortega
Email: J.Martin-Ortega@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2017/18

Pre-requisite qualifications

Good understanding in economic theories.
Familiararity in the use of Excel.

Pre-requisites

SOEE2610

Economics and Sustainability

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

Good understanding and usage of economic tools and principles is key for addressing pressing challenges affecting complex socio-ecological systems. In this module, the students will have the opportunity to put into practice the environmental and ecological economics principles and theories learned in SOEE2610, to address real life sustainability problems (relating to, for example, natural resources planning and management, climate change international negotiations, international trade and carbon emissions, etc.).

Objectives

The key objective of the module is to allow students to develop significant analytical skills in modelling interactions between socioeconomic activities and environmental consequences. This module will enable the students to develop understanding and operate a number of analytical tools to support policy decision making processes from both macro- and micro- levels.

Learning outcomes
On completion of this module students will be able to understand some new or further environmental and ecological theories and principles (e.g. environmental consequences of economic growth, measures of well-being, welfare economics and behaviour economics) and utilise key analytical tools (e.g. environmental cost-benefit analyses, experimental games, metrics of well-being) to demonstrate how those theories are presented in the interaction processes between economy and environment.

Skills outcomes
The module builds upon SOEE2610 but extends further understanding in environmental and ecological theories. The module also makes strong emphasis on practice analysing, synthesising and summarising information critically, including prior research and applying knowledge and understanding to address familiar and unfamiliar problems. The module will teach the utilisation of environmental and ecological tools in analysing interactions between economy and environment, placing strong emphasis on solving numerical problems using computer based techniques. The module places moderate emphasis on collecting and integrating several lines of evidence to formulate and test hypotheses; planning, conducting and reporting on investigations, including the use of secondary data; preparing, processing, interpreting and presenting data, using appropriate qualitative and quantitative techniques and packages.

Syllabus

1. Economic growth and the environment (including Environmental Kuznets Curves, IPAT and environmental rebound effects)
2. Gross Domestic Product and alternative indicators of well-being at the macro-economic level
3. Critical introduction to welfare economics and cost-benefit analysis
4. Introduction of behavioural economics and game theory applications

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	10	1.50	15.00
Practical	8	2.00	16.00
Private study hours			69.00
Total Contact hours			31.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			100.00

Private study

Private study will consist of the following:
Background reading for lectures (2hr per lecture)
Preparation for practical sessions (8hr - 1 hr per session)
Research and writing assignments

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students’ progresses will be closely monitored during practical sessions. The module will arrange 8 x 2 hours practical sessions. Students understanding in economic principles and skills in operating economic models will be assessed by in-class problem sets. Four in-class exercises will be conducted by students. Each exercise would be worth 10% of final module mark. Each student would choose a particular topic in the field of environmental or ecological economics research by using learned tools to implement the 2nd assignment (2,500 words essay).

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
In-course Assessment	4x in-class exercises (10% each)	40.00
Essay	Essay - 2,500 words	60.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Students are required to utilize learned analytical methods to investigate scopes and limits of climate change mitigations in the self-selected case study cities or countries. Re-sits are in the same format as for the first attempt.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 15/05/2017

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