CLIMATE CHANGE AND ECONOMICS POLICIES

The course aims at providing the students with an introduction on the economic consequences of climate change and on the economic policies that may address them. The course will also deal with the impact on the financial system and with the potential actions of the central bank and supervisors, in particular the ECB. the impact on the financial system and with the potential actions of the central bank and supervisors, in particular the ECB.

The course will offer tools to understand the goals and effectiveness of public policies addressing climate change in several areas. It will provide also general descriptions of main policies and their governance. Throughout the whole course, students will be invited to critically analyze when, how and why certain policies are pursued. This course will give the students the possibility to acquire and understand major terms and concepts in order to communicate their ideas, proposals, analysis and critical reasoning in the field of climate change and public policies, also through active participation and presentations. In particular, students are expected to be able to discuss and evaluate key policy initiatives and development in various sectors and will be invited to critically analyze them.

BA in Economics

The course focuses on the economic implication of climate change and on related public policies. It will cover fiscal, financial policies and monetary policy. It will review the main channels of the impact of climate changes and how the problem has been conceptualized by economists. The course will also cover the current policies of the ECB and the current debate

Partial list W. Nordhaus (2017, a), Revising the Social Cost of Carbon, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January W. Nordhaus (2017, b), Projections and uncertainties about climate change in an era of minimal climate policies, NBER WP 22933 N. Stern, J. Stiglitz 2021, The economics or immense risk, urgent action and radical change: Towards new approaches to the economics of climate change, NBER WP 28472 N. Stern, The Economics of Climate change (the Stern Review), 2006, Cambridge University press N. Stern, 2008, The economics of climate change, AER papers and proceedings J. Stiglitz, 2019, Addressing climate change through price and non-price interventions, NBER WP 25939 European Commission- Peseta IV study IMF, 2019 How to mitigate climate change, IMF Fiscal Monitor, October NGFS, 2021 Adapting central bank operations to a hotter world: Reviewing some options, March F. Drudi at al., 2021, Climate change and monetary policy in the euro area, ECB Occasional Paper 271, September.

Lectures and presentations on relevant empirical issues. Students’ participation during lectures is strongly encouraged and will be considered in the final assessment. Presentations of students are also envisaged

[To be fine-tuned] The main exam is composed of 6 questions of an unseen exam, at the end of the course, covering the whole course programme. Students attending the course (students who have participated and made the presentation) can take three exam questions that count for 60% and participation and presentations count for 40%. Class presentations must be signed up in the first weeks of the course (modalities will be discussed at the beginning of the course). Presentations will be prepared in small groups.

The course focuses on the implications of climate change for economic policies. The entire course is therefore linked to sustainability topics.