Economics
of Natural Resources
University of Ottawa
ECO6143 - Fall 2023
Monday 8:30-11:20 LMX 258
Professor: Louis Hotte
Course
Outline
Important dates:
- Mid-term 1: Monday Oct 2, 2023
- Mid-Term 2: Monday Nov 6, 2023
- Final exam: TBD Dec 2023
News articles:
Topics covered and
readings:
Session 1 (Sept 11 - 3 hrs) - Intro to natural resource
economics
- Read pp 161-163 in Hotte, L (2013) Environmental conflict and
natural resources.
- Case in point: Dredging
for Oysters
- Read for next Session: locational
rents - dynamic
rents - two-period non-renewable resource
- Review: Game theory. For those who feel unfamiliar with
the
concept of a Nash equilibrium, read chapter 15 of Varian
(1992), sections 1 to 4.
- Problem: Differential land rents and irrigation projects (due Monday Sept 18)
Session 2 (Sept 18 - 3 hrs) - Locational rents -
Two-period non-renewable resource - Time discounting
- Locational
rents - dynamic
rents - two-period non-renewable resource
- Basic
concepts in capital theory - time discounting
- Problems: McBain + Stonefeller + three capital theory exercizes (due Monday Sept 25)
Session 3 (Sept 25 - 3 hrs) - The
open-access fishery - The two-herder problem of free-access - The n-herder problem
- The open-access fishery
- The
two herder problem of free access
- Free access with n users
- Discussion McBain and Stonefeller (time permitting)
- Problems: sardines
+ sequential herders (solutions provided - not to be submitted)
Session 4 (Oct 2 - 3 hrs) - Mid-term exam (8h30 - 10h30) - The anti-commons
- Excessive exclusion: The anti-commons
Session 5 (Oct 16 - 3 hrs) - Bio-economic model of a fishery
- Mid-term 1 feedback
- A
bio-economic model of a fishery
- The backward-bending supply curve in a fishery
- Problems: commons and anti-commons + natural growth of a fish population + passenger pigeons and critical depensation
Reading Week (Oct 23)
Session 6 (Oct 30 - 3 hrs) - On the redistributive effects of property rights
- A general equilibrium analysis of resource privatization
- Problems: Enclosures in medieval England + Resource privatization in Pescado village
Session 7 (Nov 6 - 3 hrs) - On some welfare consequences of trade in natural resources
- Trade, resources, and property rights
- Discussion about problems
- Problems: North-South trade and the apparent comparative advantage
Session 8 (Nov 13 - 3 hrs) - Mid-term exam (8h30 - 10h30) - Trade and the control for resources
- Mid-term exam
- Trade with endogenous property regimes
Session 9 (Nov 20 - 3 hrs) - Trade, natural resources, and conflict: Theory and evidence
- Trade with endogenous property regimes (completed)
- Empirical paper I: Commodity price shocks and civil conflict: Evidence from Colombia
- Problems: Technological progress in a bio-economic model of a
fishery + A bio-economic model of a fishery with linear harvest
function + North-South trade and apparent comparative advantage with
decreasing returns in the manufacturing sector
Session 10 (Nov 27 - 3 hrs) - Conflict over property rights and resource use
- Empirical paper I continued
- Conflict, natural resource use, and state presence
- Problem: Conflict and natural resource use: The simultaneous case
Session 11 (Dec 4 - 3 hrs) - Resource use with imperfect enforcement of property rights
- Trespassing and resource use
- Problem: Policing costs in the trespassing model
Session 12 (Dec 6 - 3 hrs) -
- Review Q&A