NREM 611
Syllabus v. 12_AUG
FALL 2013
Oleson
NREM 611 - Resource and Environmental Policy
Fall 2013
Tuesday/Thursday 10:30 – 11:45
Sherman 111
Kirsten L. L. Oleson, PhD
Assistant Professor
NREM
Phone: (808) 956-8864
Office: Sherman 109
Office hours: 1:00 – 3:00 Tuesdays/by appointment
koleson@hawaii.edu
Course Overview
Environmental quality and natural resource overexploitation problems often arise because of
failures in markets, governments, or institutions, or because of certain characteristics of human
behavior. Luckily, there are a number of policy instruments at our disposal to solve these problems.
In this course, we will review the main policy and institutional failures driving environmental
depletion and degradation and survey various economic, legal, political, and institutional
instruments we can use to remedy the identified failures. We will develop a framework to evaluate
said policy solutions that includes criteria based on economics, justice, law, and political science.
You will then use the theory and evaluation framework, as well as knowledge and methods from
previous classes and experience, to analyze a policy problem of your choice.
The course instruction consists of instructor-led lectures, in-class discussion and student-led
analysis of theory and case studies, and a semester-long policy analysis project. The project
constitutes the major learning activity in the course. It is intended to prepare you to undertake and
effectively communicate rigorous policy analysis that can withstand scholarly scrutiny while
answering the needs of policy clients. To that end, your project will be peer reviewed and presented
orally to mock clients.
Admittance to Course
NREM 611 is a core course for NREM PhD students; other graduate students are welcome to enroll
provided they have the required background and are willing to perform at a PhD level. At a
minimum, incoming students need to have taken an intermediate level course in microeconomics or
natural resource economics. My assumption is that you have already been exposed to of most of the
economic theory we will be covering. Students who were waived into the course are responsible for
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“catching up” with the theory on their own time – we’re going to go pretty fast because we are also
learning methods for policy analysis.
Course Learning Outcomes
On completion of the course, you will demonstrate:
Knowledge and understanding:
● knowledge and understanding of the economic and institutional failures causing
environmental depletion and degradation and the potential solutions
● methodological knowledge of policy analysis frameworks
● awareness of various criteria that can be used to evaluate policy solutions
Skills and abilities:
● the ability to critically, systematically, and independently analyze complex
environmental problems to uncover the causes and potential policy solutions
● the ability to evaluate policy solutions across a broad spectrum of criteria, and generate
and justify recommendations based on rigorous analysis
● the ability to clearly express your arguments and analysis to peers and stakeholders,
both orally and in writing
● the ability to draw upon interdisciplinary knowledge and methods, and to work in
diverse teams
Judgment and approach:
● the ability to make well-considered judgments about appropriate policy solutions that
incorporate economic, ethical, social, and cultural aspects
● the ability to apply lessons from course and case study to environmental problems in
other contexts
Required texts
Two texts are required:
1. Weimer, D.L. and Vining, A. R. (2011). Policy analysis, 5th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Publications, Inc. (“WV” in Schedule)
2. Sterner, T. and Coria, J. (2012). Policy instruments for environmental and natural resource
policy, 2nd edition. Washington, DC:RFF Press. (“SC” in Schedule)
For those who need to brush up on micro- and environmental economics, I recommend the
following introductory texts:
●
Klein, G. and Y. Bauman (2010) The cartoon guide to economics: Vol. 1 Microeconomics.
New York:Hill and Wang.
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●
Tietenberg, T. and L. Lewis (2012). Environmental and natural resource economics, 9th
edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ:Pearson Publications, Inc.
●
Goodstein, E. (2011) Economics and the Environment, 6th edition. Hoboken, NJ:Wiley and
Sons, Inc.
Other readings will be distributed through the course website, or you will have to access them
through the UH library system. It is your responsibility to check the course website regularly and to
ensure you read assigned articles (whether or not pdfs are posted).
Assessment/grading
Course assessment will be based on the following activities and assignments:
Policy analysis case study [55%]
● Proposal [5%]
● Final paper and response to peer review/comments [35%]
● Policy brief [5%]*
● Proposal presentation [5%]
● Final presentation [5%]
Content [25%]
● Quizzes [15%]*
● Midterm [10%]*
Participation [20%]
● Peer review [5%]*
● Teach a paper [5%]*
● Other days [10%]*
A * indicates that the assignment is based on your individual work; items without the * are team
grades. I reserve the right to adjust any team member’s grade to reflect extraordinary or sub-par
effort. Rubrics for grading the policy analysis assignments will include criteria on demonstrating
your ability to apply theory, express cogent arguments and respond to counterpoints or objections,
and your teamwork. There will be four unannounced quizzes throughout the semester. Three will
count towards your final grade. Your class participation will be evaluated on the quality, relevance,
and cogency of your comments (not frequency and length) and your ability to constructively and
respectfully engage with your classmates, readings, and me. Questions during lectures are expected
and encouraged. You may also use the online class forum to post your thoughts.
Grades will be assigned based on the following scale:
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A+ >97
A
A-
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Oleson
B+ 90>x≥87 C+ 80>x≥77
97>x≥93 B
93>x≥90 B-
87>x≥83 C
83>x≥80 C-
D
+
77>x≥73 D
F
73>x≥7
70>x≥67
67>x≥63
<60
0
Policy analysis case study
The policy analysis case is meant to give you an opportunity to apply the theories and cases we will
be discussing in class to a real-world environmental problem of interest to you. This is a team
project. Groups of 3-4 students should decide on a problem of mutual interest. I highly recommend
forming this team early, and ensuring that the make-up is interdisciplinary with a broad set of skills
(stats, econ, science, communication). I will provide much more information in the coming weeks on
the assignments, and we will spend considerable time in class discussing the project. The projects
walk the line between scholarship and policy: the analysis has to be robust, but you cannot be such a
policy wonk that decision-makers are unable to assimilate your hard work. We will work on the
skills required to produce high impact policy analysis. Peer review is an integral part of the process;
you will carefully review your peers’ work to help them, and they will offer you comments that you
will need to incorporate and/or rebut.
Expectations
Of you:
● Come to class prepared so that you can actively participate in class discussions.
● Respectfully and politely engage with your peers and instructors, share your opinions, know
the difference between opinion and fact, back up your arguments with evidence, listen
carefully to the opinions and arguments of others, be willing to assimilate new information
and change your mind if other arguments are more cogent than yours, ask for clarification,
be succinct
● Contribute your fair share to your team project
● Complete assignments on time
● Keep up to date – the course schedule is subject to alterations
Of me:
My role is to design and teach the course such that you achieve the course outcomes. To that end, I
will:
● Be punctual, prepared, and enthusiastic
● Clearly communicate course content, expectations, policies, and assignments
● Listen carefully to questions and concerns
● Be available during office hours to provide assistance and feedback
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●
●
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Respectfully and politely engage with you in discussion (see above)
Fairly assess your work
Course evaluation by students
As most of you know, this course has been redesigned to meet the needs of NREM students. Given
the enthusiasm of the students, it will undoubtedly be a great class, but I would like to gather
real-time feedback. I will be using numerous evaluation methods during the semester to make
changes and improvements “on the run” (when possible) as well as to get feedback for longer-term
improvements in course structure and content. I welcome constructive feedback and suggestions;
please email, talk with me outside of class, or leave me an anonymous note in my mailbox. In
addition, I will have you fill out 5-minute “WWW/CBB” (What went well, Could have been better)
index cards on a regular basis. I will also solicit support from the Center for Teaching Excellence, and
hope for your honest cooperation.
Student support
●
If you (or someone you know) need support in personal, academic, or career concerns, UH
offers confidential and free support services (http://www2.hawaii.edu/~csdc/).
If you feel you need reasonable accommodations because of the impact of a disability,
please contact the KOKUA Program: http://www.hawaii.edu/kokua/; and speak with
me privately to discuss your specific needs.
● Writing is a skill whose development takes time and dedication. I strongly suggest you seek
outside help – even great writers can improve! UH has a writing center where you can get 1
hour a week of free tutoring. Please use it (and book early)!
http://www.english.hawaii.edu/writingcenter/
● We have access to a wonderful research librarian, Eileen Herring, (eherring@hawaii.edu)
who can help you access all kinds of data, direct you to resources, and even find quiet study
nooks. She set up a useful page for NREM:
http://guides.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/NaturalResourceMgt
●
Attendance/late policy
Please attend class and be on time. Your grade and my opinion of you will suffer if you don’t. I will
excuse absences for emergencies, illness, or fieldwork (see me for what you need to do). I expect
you to come to class prepared to engage in discussion and wrestle with the theory and cases we’ll be
covering. To this end, you should carefully do all readings prior to the start of class (ideally well
before so you have time to think about them). All assignments need to be turned in on time – the
course schedule is very tight and your peers (and I) require time to do their (my) reviews. Turning
assignments in late will affect the quality of the reviews, and thus the quality of your products. This
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will, obviously, impact your grades, and I also reserve the right to reduce your grade on any
assignment (or not accept it at all) if it is late. Due dates are clearly labeled in the Schedule.
Other policies
It hopefully goes without saying that cheating, plagiarism, and other forms of dishonesty will not be
tolerated. In fact, I have a zero tolerance policy: you cheat or plagiarize, you fail. If you have any
questions about what constitutes cheating or plagiarism (hopefully dishonesty is clear), please refer
to the definitions in the UH student conduct code
(http://www.manoa.hawaii.edu/students/conduct/). If you still have questions please! get in
touch before you turn something in. There is nothing wrong with asking – often plagiarism is a gray
area, especially in academics where we each build on each other’s work and ideas. But violations
could have serious academic repercussions for you in this class and beyond.
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