ESS RESECON · European Summer School in Resource and Environmental Economics

Final Activity Report Summary - ESS RESECON (European Summer School in Resource and Environmental Economics)

ESS RESECON comprised a series of four European summer schools in resource and environmental economics organised by the project partners: European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and Venice International University. The broader project objective was to provide advanced training for young researchers on European issues of environmental and resource economics. The summer schools were addressed to small groups of doctoral students in environmental and resource economics from Europe and beyond. 72 funded researchers attended the events. The faculty was comprised of leaders in the field and offered an overall coverage of the specialist area. The summer schools' topics varied from year to year and reflected issues that were lively areas of new research and policy interest: 1. Computable general equilibrium modelling in environmental and resource economics Environmental policies are increasingly assessed not only on the basis of their environmental effectiveness but also depending on the associated economic impacts with respect to efficiency and incidence. These three dimensions of sustainable development (environmental quality, economic performance, equity concerns) are intertwined and subject to trade-offs. The quantification of trade-offs requires the use of numerical model techniques. Computable general equilibrium models have become an established analytical framework for evaluating the economy-wide and environmental implications of policy intervention on resource allocation and income of agents. The summer schools provided a comprehensive introduction to applied general equilibrium analysis of environmental policies by internationally renowned experts. 2. Trade, property right and biodiversity An important condition for the successful design of policies regarding trade and biodiversity is that it takes into account the complex interactions between ecological, economic and institutional factors, including property rights arrangements. The correct assessment of the impacts of trade on resource management and economic welfare is indispensable in order to propose policy measures to remedy externalities. Issues arising include rent-seeking, lobbying and corruption; endogenous institutions and market development; and economic geography. Biodiversity is one of the key environmental problems. Protection of biodiversity is high on the policy agenda. The summer schools made an important contribution to capacity building in this area. 3. Space in unified models of economy and ecology Economic and ecological systems evolve in time and space. Interactions take place among units occupying distinct spatial points and geographical patterns of production activities, urban concentrations, or species concentrations occur. The emergence of spatial patterns in economics has received relatively little systematic analysis, with the notable exception of the body of knowledge developed in the context of new economic geography. On the other hand, the concept of diffusion has been used in ecological modelling to explain spatial pattern formation in ecological systems. This summer school reviewed and presented methods of modelling spatial problems in ecological economics, and showed how these methods can be used in environmental and resource management. 4. Economics, transport and environment Transport is one of the main sources of externalities. Important externalities are air pollution, noise, congestion, wear and tear, but also accident, congestion and schedule delay costs imposed upon others. The summer school focused not only on environmental problems in a very narrow sense but also to study the interrelation with the other types of externalities. Transport externalities need a somewhat different analysis from most other externalities in the sense that the level of the externalities feeds back into the level of the activity: increased congestion and accident levels decrease participation in transport activities.

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