Request: If you wish to "bookmark" these materials, please bookmark through the ClassWeb access point, so that your "hits" will be noted in the accounting of Social Sciences Computing. I will be uploading revisions and additional details and linked material for this syllabus as the quarter progresses. Complete online course information may be accessed using the "E134 Webpage" link. (Syllabus corrected and amended 01/11/01)

Lectures: T, Th, 2:00 - 3:15; Public Policy 1246
Midterm: Tuesday, February 6, 2:00 - 3:15 (no make-up exam)
Final: Tuesday, March 20, 3-6 pm. (no exceptions, including travel plans)
Instructor's Office: Bunche Hall 9367
Phone: 825-3925 (or leave urgent messages at 825-1011)
e-mail: tcameron@econ.ucla.edu
Office Hours: Mon: 12-2 pm, Th: 12-1 pm. (beginning second week) and by appointment. Caution: These may be altered after the faculty recruiting season ends.
Discussion Board (authenticated): http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/01W/econ134-1/wwwboard
Announcements: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/01W/econ134-1/announce.php

TAs: Jae-Seung Lee, Benjamin Bolitzer
TA Sections (25-minute quizzes will be held in quiz sections in weeks 3,6,8 and 10; scheduling reflects our two Monday holidays this quarter and the fact that the midterm is in 5th week, Tuesday, February 6) (or, direct from Schedule of Classes):
   1A Mon.  3:00- 3:50, BUNCHE 3156 (Bolitzer)
   1B Tues.  10:00- 10:50, BUNCHE 3211 (Lee)
   1C Tues. 1:00-1:50, BUNCHE 3211 (Lee)
   1D Wed.  3:00- 3:50, BUNCHE 3211 (Bolitzer)
You MUST arrange in advance to attend a quiz section other than the one for which you are registered. Since quizzes will be written in section, we cannot risk having too few seats or too few quiz papers to go around. We must also minimize the natural tendency for students to want to put off writing their quiz for a few more days. We cannot handle everybody writing their quiz in the 3:00 pm session on Wednesday, for example. Keep in mind that we will be normalizing the scores for each section so that your performance relative to others who wrote the same quiz will be what matters, not your score relative to people in later sections.
TA Office: Lee: Bunche 9360, Bolitzer: Bunche 2255
TA Office hours: Lee: F 9-11 AM, Bolitzer: M,W, 4-5 PM.
e-mail: Jae-Seung Lee: jaelee@ucla.edu, Ben Bolitzer: benjaminbolitzer@hotmail.com.

Synopsis: Lecture, three hours; TA section, one hour. Requisites: courses 11, 101. Application of economic theory to natural and environmental resources problems. Topics include sustainability and natural resource scarcity, steady-state models for renewable resources (land and water, fisheries, forests), externalities and pollution (including use of incentives for pollution control), and nonrenewable resources (minerals). Emphasis on the major environmental issues and problems facing Californians, especially air, water, and toxic substances. Readings to be assigned from textbook and supplementary course reader; midterm (25%), final exam (50%), Quizzes 15%, Other 10%. Letter grading.

Course Objectives:

NOTE: There is a substantial on-line component to this course. "Virtual Handouts" will be used to supplement lecture materials (a good deal of this material is for enrichment; absolutely essential supplementary readings will be noted in lectures). Also, access to a number of on-line data bases will be one of the important parts of this course. For these tasks, you will need to be able to access the Web from a UCLA IP address (e.g. via BruinOnline, not AOL or some other provider). Some of the important databases we will need are not accessible outside UCLA's system.

Review Sessions: will be scheduled for a late afternoon/early evening time slot a few days prior to each exam.

Textbooks and Other Useful Materials:

This quarter, the text will be:

Tietenberg, Tom (2000) Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (5th edition), Reading, MA: Addison Wesley

Self-scoring Online Practice Quizzes (not for credit, require Netscape browser: http://home.netscape.com/download/index.html)

Practice Problems

Detailed Course Outline:

The course outline provided below represents only an ex ante course plan, to be revised and amended during the quarter as warranted. The Spring 2000 version of the course proved to be a bit too advanced for a "first" course. I have reverted to the text used in Spring 1999, but in a new edition. I am awaiting word from the University concerning approval of a proposed Spring 2001 course, to be called Economics 134b, which will look more like the Spring 2000 course.

1. Background:
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 1    


2. Tools (including net benefits analysis):
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 2,3    


3. Property Rights and Externalities:
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 4    


4. Sustainability
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 5


5. The Allocation of Depletable and Renewable Resources: Overview
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 7


6. Energy Resources: Oil, Gas, Coal, and Uranium
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 8


7. Water Resources (quantity issue)
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 10    



MIDTERM EXAM will cover to this point at most (or to whatever
we can cover by the end of Lecture 7 on January 30, which is
one week prior to the exam).

8. Forests
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 12    


9. Fisheries
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 13


10. Economics of Pollution Control: Overview
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 15


11. Stationary Source Local Air Pollution
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 16    


12. Regional and Global Air Pollutants: Acid Rain and Atmospheric Modification
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 17    


13. Mobile-Source Air Pollution
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 18    


14. Water Pollution
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 19


15. Toxic Substances
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 20    


16. Environmental Justice
   
READINGS: Tietenberg, Ch. 21    

• Midterm 75 points (25% of total)
• Four quizzes lowest score dropped 45 points (15% of total)
• Other requirements, 30 points (10% of total)*
• Final 150 points (50% of total)