Environmental and Transport Economics - Period 5

The premise that the free market automatically leads to an efficient allocation of goods and factors of production, and that, as a result, the government should not intervene in the market process, is often too simple a representation of reality. The course Environmental and Transport Economics deals with the complex relationship between "market" and "government" from the perspective of environmental and transport economics. In the course, general economic insights with regard to the relationship between "market" and "government" are developed and elaborated on the basis of practical and appealing examples.

At the core of the course is the concept of "externalities" as an economic cause of environmental problems such as pollution and overexploitation of natural resources. Policy instruments to combat these problems are discussed in the course. In addition, other forms of externalities are being investigated - in particular traffic jams and congestion in road traffic. But the course also deals with market failures arising from market power on railways ("natural monopoly"), in aviation ("oligopoly" and "contestable markets") and in energy supply ("cartels" such as OPEC); or because of public goods such as infrastructure. Finally, methods to empirically estimate the economic values of non-priced goods such as carbon emissions and time, and methods to make informed investment decisions (in particular cost-benefit analysis) are discussed and applied.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) awards credits based on the ECTS system. Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA?s recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.