The recognition that environmental factors can affect human well-being can be traced at least as far back as the thirteenth century when the King of England banned the burning of sea-coal in London because it was “prejudicial to health”. Today, nearly every country in the world regulates the environment to some degree, and pollution is a canonical example of both externalities and public goods in microeconomic textbooks. This course examines the economics of pollution and its impacts on health, human capital, and economic development. The emphasis is largely empirical, with a focus on the key estimation challenges that characterize this literature. It is designed to appeal to PhD students in economics within the environmental, public, labor, and development fields.
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