Universität Wien

040370 KU Empirical Environmental Economics (MA) (2026S)

4.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 4 - Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 50 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Monday 02.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 09.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 16.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 23.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 13.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 20.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 27.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 04.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 11.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 18.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 01.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 08.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 15.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 22.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Monday 29.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 7 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 1.Stock
  • Tuesday 30.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 4 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 Erdgeschoß

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Environmental Economics studies the interplay between the environment and economic activity, i.e. how the environment affects economic outcomes, and how economic conditions influence environmental quality. In normative terms, it analyses how to design optimal environmental policies.
After a brief introduction to the underlying theoretical concepts, this course focuses on how micro-econometric methods can be used to answer these questions. The course is structured as a lecture, covering topics such as:
- What is the social cost of carbon, and how harmful is air pollution?
- How effective are climate policies such as cap-and-trade programs or subsidies for clean technologies? What are their distributional impacts?

A strong emphasis will be put on understanding the empirical methods used (e.g. difference-in-differences, instrumental variables etc.). Thus, students should have a good background in econometrics.
The final sessions are reserved for student presentations and discussions of recent empirical environmental economics research papers.

Assessment and permitted materials

The evaluation will be based on
- a closed-book final exam (45%),
- a presentation of a paper in class (45%), and
- class participation (10%).

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

To pass the course, 50% across all parts of the course (not separately) are necessary.

Examination topics

All the material covered in class will be relevant for the final exam.
For the in-class presentation, students must understand the respective research paper, including the empirical method, and be able to explain it and answer to questions.

Reading list

Published articles and recent working papers in environmental economics. Detailed references will be announced in the first session. Some examples include:

Barreca, A. I., K. Clay, O. Deschênes, M. Greenstone, and J. S. Shapiro. 2016. Adapting to Climate Change: The Remarkable Decline in the U.S. Temperature-Mortality Relationship over the Twentieth Century. Journal of Political Economy 124 (1): 105–159
Deryugina, T., G. Heutel, N. H. Miller, D. Molitor, and J. Reif. 2019. The Mortality and Medical Costs of Air Pollution: Evidence from Changes in Wind Direction. American Economic Review 109
Colmer, J., M. Muûls, R. Martin, and U. J. Wagner. 2024. Does Pricing Carbon Mitigate Climate Change? Firm-Level Evidence from the European Union Emissions Trading System. Review of Economic Studies.

For background reading on microeconometric methods the following textbooks are recommended and available online:
Huntington-Klein, Nick. The Effect: An Introduction to Research Design and Causality. Available online: https://theeffectbook.net/
Cunningham, Scott. Causal inference: The mixtape. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Available online: https://mixtape.scunning.com/

Association in the course directory

E.1.5., E.1.6.

Last modified: Mo 27.07.2026 09:26