Learning objectives
The new and reinforced sensibilities for the environmental issues at global level need deeper economic and quantitative skills capable to evaluate the effects of environmental policies on environmental resource availability. The aim of this course is to provide a set of theoretical and operational skills to face, develop and solve decision problems into the environmental policy framework, throughout models based on economics theory and mathematical programming tools. By the way of the course, the student can acquire knowledge about methods and operational tools for evaluating the economic relationships between economic activities and environmental resources. In particular, the study of mathematical optimization techniques will provide to the student a support for facing the problem linked to environmental policy evaluation with respect to the economic agent behaviour.
Prerequisites
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Course unit content
I PART – MICROECONOMICS
1. The Market
1.1 The scarcity issue
1.2 Economic models: how to represent the consumer and producer behaviour
1.3 The price system
2. The Consumer Choice
2.1 Consumer preferences
2.2 Expenditure constraints
2.3 Consumer equilibrium
2.4 Demand function
3. The Firm and its Objectives
3.1 Firm behaviour
3.2 Maximizing the profit
3.3 The Perfect competition
3.4 The equilibrium in perfect competition markets
II PART – TOOLS OF ANALYSIS
1. The Linear Programming (LP)
1.1 Economic principles of linear programming
1.2 LP problem formulation
1.3 The duality
1.4 The information organization using the TABLEAU
1.5 LP problem solving: the simplex algorithm
1.6 LP and Langrange function
2. Quantitative tools for developing LP models
2.1 The GAMS (General Algebraic Modeling System) language for mathematical programming model formulation
2.2 Exercises on pc
3. The analysis of environmental issues using mathematical programming
3.1 The environmental performance analysis throughout models for technical and economic efficiency evaluation.
3.2 LCA and LP models.
3.3 The economic agent behaviour facing environmental policy: the study of a positive mathematical programming approach
3.4 Exercises on pc.
Full programme
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Bibliography
Recommended readings
- Michael L. Katz, Harvey S. Rosen, Carlo Andrea Bollino, Microeconomia, McGraw-Hill, 2007;
- Quirino Paris, An economic interpretation of linear programming, Iowa State Press, Ames, 1991;
- Richard Rosenthal, GAMS: a user’s guide, Gams Development Corporation, Washington, 2008;
- Documents distributed by the lecturer.
Teaching methods
Lectures and exercises on specific optimization packages
Assessment methods and criteria
Oral exam and practical test
Other information
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