Resource Economics

Catalog description

AEM 7500 covers analytic and numerical methods for solving dynamic programming problems; numerical methods for solving stochastic dynamic programming problems; structural econometric models of static games of incomplete information; structural econometric models of single-agent dynamic optimization problems; structural econometric models of multi-agent dynamic games; and advanced topics in dynamic structural econometric modeling including unobserved heterogeneity, identification, partial identification, and machine learning. The course also covers economic applications of these methods that are relevant to the environment, energy, natural resources, agriculture, development, management, finance, marketing, industrial organization, and business economics. These applications include firm investment, nonrenewable resource extraction, optimal economic growth, fisheries, subsistence agriculture, investment under uncertainty, optimal stopping, (S,s) policies, petroleum production, water management, environmental policy, engine replacement, nuclear energy, wind energy, land use, rural labor supply, incentive schemes, health, and education. The methods covered in the course enable one to analyze the strategic and dynamic decision-making behavior of individuals, households, organizations, firms, and countries; to analyze how different institutions and policies (and changes in these institutions and policies) affect this behavior and its outcome; and to design institutions and policies so that the decision-making behavior and outcome that are realized increase net benefits to society.