Teaching at the Institute for Environmental Economics and World Trade

The course introduces the students into important fundamental economic aspects of development, environment and trade. It provides an overview of socioeconomic and demographic developments and world-wide trends (urbanization, digitalisation) which characterize the globalizing world. It focuses on environmental concepts and terms (e.g. externalities, public goods, optimal pollution). Economic growth theories for development and poverty concepts are discussed next to sustainability concepts or footprints. Interlinkages between development and environmental issues are clearly identified and analysed. International framework conventions and organisations in charge of both development and environment are briefly introduced.

Selected articles will be provided during the course.

Erwartete Vorkenntnisse: Modules of the first two terms; fair command of English language: the students should have a basic understanding of microeconomic theory. They are free to choose the language – English or German – in the exam.

• Concepts, measures and approaches to evaluate the international competitiveness of sectors in an increasingly globalized world (e.g. Global Competitiveness indices)
• International trade and the impact of standards and labelling on competitiveness of countries
• New institutional economics and its role in strengthening competitiveness
• Case studies from the agro-food and industrial sector.

• Porter, M. E. (1998) On Competitiveness, New York.
• World Economic Forum (Hrsg.) The Global Competitiveness Report, Geneva, published annually.

A list with selected references will be distributed at the beginning of the course.

The exercise is a supplement to the lecture “International Competitiveness” by addressing and deepening course contents and exploring further perspectives of selected topics. Students apply and discuss theoretical and scientific approaches by means of practical applications. The exercise also aims to promote interaction between students. For this purpose, they jointly assess case studies.

Selected dates will be announced.

Die Studierenden erarbeiten eine Seminararbeit zu einem Thema aus dem Bereich der Entwicklungs- und/oder Umweltökonomie. Im Rahmen einer Blockveranstaltung wird die Arbeit in einem 15 minütigen Vortrag vorgestellt und anschließend diskutiert. Für die erfolgreiche Teilnahme (Hausarbeit, Vortrag, Teilnahme an der Diskussion) wird ein Schein erteilt.

Wird themenabhängig bekannt gegeben.

Der Termin der Vorbesprechung wird in Stud.IP bekannt gegeben, weitere Informationen werden dort ebenso zur Verfügung gestellt.

Prüferin: Prof. Dr. Grote

This block course is highly recommended to students who aim to write their Bachelor thesis at the Institute of Environmental Economic and World Trade (IUW). No credit points are awarded for this course.

The students learn about

• the formal process from registration to submission of the final thesis.
• their options of writing a scientific literature review, a meta-analysis or doing a thesis with an empirical part.
• How to find, evaluate and use literature efficiently.
• How to find a central topic and suitable title.
• How to formulate research questions and to structure a thesis based on scientific standards.
• Formal requirements of citation, tables, figures etc.
• Scientific writing based on practical examples.
• the process of analyzing data and producing descriptive tables, based on some exercises.

The course will provide in-depth knowledge on the design and the organization of surveys for collecting representative household data in emerging market economies; main topics include: sampling design, interview techniques, questionnaire design, data cleaning and use of secondary data.

The course and the exam are in English.

The exercise is a supplement to the lecture “Data collection” by addressing and deepening course contents and exploring further perspectives of selected topics. More in detail, students will be offered a case study from a survey in Southeast Asia. They will receive a questionnaire in "survey solution" which they have to review, assess and update in group works. The exercise also aims to promote interaction between students. It will be organized in several blocks which will allow to monitor and assess the progress made by the students.

The basic idea of the course »International Business Relations« is to link current topics and issues from development economics to the major International Organizations and Agencies in Development Assistance. Development Organisations generally follow different development strategies and theoretical concepts which are not made apparent in conventional textbooks of development economics. However, it becomes increasingly important to understand such connections. Exploring them will make the agenda and interests of development agencies more transparent and allows those engaged in development activities to better understand the arguments and actions forwarded by these agencies. More in detail, the course will be structured into major current development topics like the effectiveness of development assistance; underdevelopment, poverty, and vulnerability; sustainability, food safety and food security; world food crisis and price fluctuations; globalization and trade, and climate change. These topics have been developed, adjusted and shaped by major socio-economic, institutional and political and environmental trends over time. They were taken up by different international organisations and agencies like the United Nations System, the World Bank, the Regional Development Banks, the World Trade Organisation, the German Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation, private sector organisations including the German Technical Agency (GIZ), or non-governmental organizations. As major objectives of the course, the students will (i) get familiarized with the major players in development assistance, (ii) learn about the development strategies and conceptual theories, and (iii) discover the connection between development strategies of international organisations and their underlying economic and development theories.

The course and the exam are in English.

Simulation models are of high importance for policy-planning, decision-making and scientific analyses. Applications range from business and economy problems to behavioral and impact evaluations. The course provides knowledge about the methodology, design and implementation of different modelling techniques focusing on micro- and macroeconomic simulations. Hands-on exercises help to familiarize. Finally, students gain useful skills about the GAMS, NetLogo and Stata software. A previous knowledge of the software tools or simulation modelling is not required to participate in the course. In this way, the course is relevant for business practice, but possibly also for the methodological application in a master thesis.

The course and the exam are in English.

In a written assignment, students will review a scientific paper and write a proposal related to a topic of current economic issues related to a comprehensive dataset from Southeast Asia (i.e. the Thailand Vietnam Socio-Economic Panel (TVSEP)). The assignments will be done in small groups. The proposals will need to be presented and defended at the end of the seminar.

This block course provides guidelines to the students who plan to do their Master thesis at the Institute for Environmental Economics and World Trade. No credit points are awarded for this course. It is highly recommended for Master students who write their thesis at IUW.

Course structure:

Section 1: Finding a thesis topic and registration

Section 2: IUW datasets and projects

Section 3: Survey design

Section 4: Data analysis with Econometrics

Section 5: Modeling SAM_CGE_ABM

Section 6: General guidelines

Section 7: Proposal presentation

The students can present their proposal to the IUW team and other students. They can get feedback and also ask questions. This would be optional.

Additional benefits from the course:

1. Work groups – student working on similar topics or datasets can form groups to help each other through the process
2. Group forum – on StudIP, we create a forum, where students can ask questions. This way, other students could also help or if the supervisor answers, it would also be helpful for the other students.

Access to energy is the linchpin of industrial production. Yet the energy market itself is not an ordinary commodity market. In this context many questions arise: What drives energy prices on this market? How is trade of energy products regulated and distorted? How do players deal with market imbalances? How do environmental concerns factor in?

This course will provide you with tools to analyse these and other questions linked to energy value chain. With an emphasis on environmental issues we will cover topics surrounding the energy sector like the certification schemes, CO2 trade, national and global institutions, resource management, market power and others.

Selected reading material will be provided.

The course and the exam are in English.

The course focuses on the following four major topics: (1) the economics of pollution (the role of taxes, standards, subsidies, labeling, marketable pollution permits and payments for environmental services); (2) methods for valuing the environment (revealed, imputed and expressed willingness to pay); (3) accounting and integrative methods (footprints, national accounting matrix, life cycle analysis), and (4) the economics of natural resources (renewable and exhaustible resources ; extinction of species).

• Pearce, David and Kerry Turner (1990): Economics of Natural Resources and The Environment. Essex, England.
• Tietenberg, Tom and Lynne Lewis (2012): Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. Pearson International Edition, 9th Edition.

Selected articles will be provided during the lecture.

The course and the exam are in English.

The exercise is a supplement to the lecture “Environmental Economics” by addressing and deepening course contents and exploring further perspectives of selected topics. Students apply and discuss theoretical and scientific approaches by means of practical applications. The exercise also aims to promote interaction between students.

The exercise will take place every two weeks 1 ½ hours. Selected Dates will be announced.

Studies and progress reports presented by doctoral students will be critically assessed and discussed.

Interested participants are requested to register at the secretariat of the Institute for Environmental Economics and World Trade.

The course introduces the students into important fundamental economic aspects of development, environment and trade. It provides an overview of socioeconomic and demographic developments and world-wide trends (urbanization, digitalisation) which characterize the globalizing world. It focuses on environmental concepts and terms (e.g. externalities, public goods, optimal pollution). Economic growth theories for development and poverty concepts are discussed next to sustainability concepts or footprints. Interlinkages between development and environmental issues are clearly identified and analysed. International framework conventions and organisations in charge of both development and environment are briefly introduced.

Selected articles will be provided during the course.

Erwartete Vorkenntnisse: Modules of the first two terms; fair command of English language: the students should have a basic understanding of microeconomic theory. They are free to choose the language – English or German – in the exam.