Adjunct Instructor – Economics of Sustainability
City College of New York is seeking an adjunct instructor, for Spring 2017, for an “Economics of Sustainability” course. It is one of the core courses of the curriculum for the Sustainability in the Urban Environment Master’s program: http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/sustainability/.
Below is a general description (abridged) of the course. As taught to date, the course has focused on treatment of environmental concerns largely from a neoclassical economics purview. We would welcome an instructor versed in ecological economics who could supplement this purview with a view of the economy and the natural environment as an interlinked complex system. Topics might include natural capital; new ways to measure wealth creation; green technology innovation; ways to model economy-ecosystem interactions; new ways to assess climate and economic risk; institutional innovations needed to transition to a sustainable economy; convergences and divergences between mainstream and ecological economics; etc. Practicalities: The class will meet once per week (probably Tuesday) for a three hour evening session, beginning in late January 2017, on the campus of City College in upper Manhattan/West Harlem, New York City. Contact for interested candidates: George Smith, gsmith2@ccny.cuny.edu.
Economics of Sustainability Course Description [abridged]: Basic economic principles in the context of investigations of how consumer and producer choices affect the sustainability of economic development both regionally and globally. Theory of optimal allocation of resources and when markets fail to provide it. Inquiry into social institutions and government policies that correct market failures. Likely topics will include: Economists’ approaches to environmental and natural resource problems: Scarcity and allocation. Social choice: How much environmental protection? From individual utility functions to social welfare functions. Efficiency in private markets, producer and consumer surplus, demand and supply of “Bads”, cost-benefit analysis and considerations of discounting over time. Externalities. Single/multiple polluters, fees/subsidies. Regulating pollution; emission fees and marketable permits, command and control versus economic incentives; sources/receptors/transfers, temporal variability. Risk and uncertainty measurement; choices under uncertainty. Valuation of information and irreversibility. Models of liability.