PAM 4110 - [Pollution, Climate Change, and Health]

(SBA-HE)

Spring. Not offered: 2020-2021. Next offered: 2021-2022. 3 credits. Student option grading (no audit).

Prerequisite: PAM 2000, PAM 3100.

N. Sanders.

In-depth discussion of the growing field of applied economics research on the relationships between pollution, climate, and human health. The course will be begin with a brief introduction to the application of modern applied microeconomic causal methods – students must have taken Multiple Regression Analysis (or a course equivalent) and have basic familiarity with the statistical analysis program Stata. Areas of study include pollution and climate impacts on mortality, morbidity, human capital development, productivity, and mental cognition, as well as the role of avoidance behavior and adaptation in mitigating such effects. This course requires a good deal of reading from academic journal articles and working papers. Discussion of the articles will focus on interpretation of outcomes, potential confounders and complications in establishing the pollution, climate, and health link, and the methodologies used in modern applied microeconomics to establish causal links.

Outcome 1: Students will be able to develop a familiarity with modern economic research on the links between climate, pollution, and health.

Outcome 2: Students will be able to identify and evaluate common applied microeconomic models for separating causality from correlational links.

Outcome 3: Students will be able to understand the role of avoidance behavior and technological mitigation in offsetting the health effects of pollution and climate.

Outcome 4: Students will be able to replicate several figures from a published article using available data sets.