Course:FRE420

The Economics of International Trade and the Environment
FRE 420
Section:
Instructor:	Dr. Carol A McAusland
Email:	[mailto:Carol.McAusland@ubc.ca Carol.McAusland@ubc.ca]
Office:	McML 337
Office Hours:	Tu/Th 2-3 PM, or by appointment.
Class Schedule:	Tu/Th 9:30 -10:50 AM
Classroom:	MCML 160
Important Course Pages
	Syllabus
	Lecture Notes
	Assignments
	Course Discussion

Prerequisites

Econ 301 or COMM 295 or "6 credits of upper-level Econ or FRE". You will be expected to:

• Differentiate
• Integrate
• Calculate first-order conditions for interior optima

Assessment

In light of the move to all-online instruction and evaluation, the final exam has been canceled. Your final grade will be calculated as follows:

Assessment Tool	Percent of Grade
In-class experiments	3
Quizzes (Your best three on four 40-min quizzes)	70
Presentation
Substance	13
Style (Verbal)	6
Annotated Bibliography	8
Total	100

Course Outline

Quick tour of environmental economics

• Externalities
• Pigouvian taxes
• Optimal abatement/pollution
• Public goods & bads

Quick tour of international economics - Why do we trade?

• Differences in comparative advantage
• Ricardian
• Factor endowments
• Variety
• Economies of scale & heterogeneity
• Abnormal profits

Classic T&E: Does trade help or hurt the environment?

• Non-Transboundary

1. Exacerbate or correct distortions?
2. Income effects
3. Political economy
4. Footlooseness

• Transboundary

1. Institutions
2. Why does the WTO get involved?

Deeper Dives

• Carbon Leakage

1. Causes
2. Amount

• Leakage Solutions

1. Border carbon adjustments (BCAs)
2. Destination-based carbon policy (DBCP) such as carbon footprint taxes (CFT)
3. Output based allocations (OBA)
4. Divestment · CAP as constraint

• Multilateral Environmental Agreements  & WTO
• If Time Permits

1. CITES (Elephants & poaching)
2. Waste Trade
3. Migration & environment
4. Invasives
5. Transport