Development Economics and the Environment

Reducing global poverty and addressing environmental degradation—including climate change—are among the most pressing challenges of our time. These issues are deeply interconnected. Environmental problems, particularly climate change and pollution, poses serious threats to economic development, especially in low- and middle-income countries, where they undermine health, productivity, and livelihoods. At the same time, economic development—depending on its nature and trajectory—can either exacerbate or help resolve environmental harm.
This course explores the complex, bidirectional relationship between poverty, economic development and the environment through the lens of applied microeconomic research. In the first part of the course, we examine how environmental hazards and climate stressors affect economic outcomes in developing regions. We analyze their impacts on critical drivers of development such as health, education, labor productivity, migration, and conflict. Special attention is given to the the adaptation and mitigation challenges faced by resource-constrained and institutionally fragile settings.
In the second part, we reverse the perspective and study how economic development and policy decisions affect environmental quality. We explore the effectiveness of pollution control strategies, the role of institutions in shaping environmental outcomes, and the trade-offs between growth and sustainability in low-income contexts.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
Understand, explain and communicate effectively the two-way relationship and trade-offs between economic development and environmental degradation, particularly in developing country contexts.
Evaluate empirical evidence on how environmental hazards—such as pollution, extreme weather, and climate shocks—affect key development outcomes and analyze the challenges and opportunities for climate adaptation and mitigation in low-income and institutionally fragile settings
Explain how economic activities contribute to environmental degradation and how these effects differ across stages of development.
Critically assess the challenges of environmental policy tools in developing countries.