Political Economy of Climate Change and the Environment

This graduate level course examines the political and economic drivers that have and will continue to change the Earth’s environment and climate. We will examine scholarship that debates the sources of these changes and the proposed solutions. Specific focus will be on scholarship from political science and economics, but insights from other social science disciplines will be examined as well. The course will also consider and evaluate policy proposals designed to reduce or eliminate environmental and climatic problems with an eye to how well they address underlying incentive problems, interface with existing or new institutional structures, and are predicated on credible empirical research. Domestic, comparative, and international focused literatures are all covered in the class.