Fall 2022

Class meetings

Lecture

Tues/Thurs 11:00-12:15am (AXN 109)

Drop-in hours

Mon 11am-noon (Zoom), Tues 2-3pm (in-person) Wed 10-11am (Zoom)

Contact information

Zoom room ID: 927 138 2648

Slack channel: ECON 0265 F22

Office: Warner 301 (mask required)

Email: akhilr@middlebury.edu

Course locations

Canvas site for submissions and material

Executive summary

Format: Flipped class with in-person meetings. Roughly one class meeting each week will be discussion and activities, and one class meeting will be problem-solving (e.g., PS questions).

Deliverables: Weekly problem sets with corrections; short quizzes linked to videos; some synchronous/asynchronous games; challenge question sets every 3-4 weeks; exam question set; 10-12 page research paper. See schedule at the back for dates.

Consumables: Lecture videos with slides/notes, misc. notes/videos as needed/requested.

Grading: Labor-based contract (grades based largely on effort; don’t need to do every possible thing to get an A).

Expectations: Come to meetings prepared (watched videos and done the readings).

No exams. See the grading contract below; pick the grade you want and do the work to get it. Problem set solutions released after the due date.

A particularly helpful question when feeling generally confused but you’re not quite sure what you’re confused by: “I’m not following, could you repeat that?”

Note: This is version 1.1 of a redesigned ECON 265 course. I did this redesign with the aim of making ECON 265 more engaging and inclusive, and this is the first in-person run. Some things will translate well from the virtual space the redesign was intended for, and others won’t. I’m still ironing out the wrinkles. I would greatly appreciate your feedback on the course design during and after this semester.

Weekly flow

A typical week will look something like this:

  • Monday: Office hours for any questions you have; new problem set and challenge question set (if any) assigned
  • Tuesday: Attend class, do activities and discussion about concepts; office hours for any questions
  • Wednesday:
  • Thursday: Attend class, bring questions about problem sets/challenge questions; office hours for any questions
  • Friday: Outstanding problem set and challenge question set (if any) due; previous problem set corrections due

Each of you will attend one synchronous meeting per week via Zoom. Please only attend the meeting you signed up for on Banner.

I expect you to watch the relevant videos before our class meetings. After you have watched the videos, you can complete short quizzes to check your understanding. For example, you should watch the videos with quizzes scheduled for October 4 before class on October 5. You will get class credit for completing the quizzes.

Course description and goals

This course is about bringing an economic perspective to our relationship with the environment, and adding an environmental flavor to our thinking about the economy.

Humans are becoming increasingly aware that our actions to improve our welfare have far-reaching consequences on our environment and resource stocks. From the use of fossil fuels to generate energy, to harvesting fish to feed our families, to launching satellites to monitor crops and weather, the environmental impacts of our actions are becoming more severe. We are living in the Anthropocene: an age of climate change and global poverty reduction; resource depletion and global supply chains; orbital debris accumulation and real-time satellite-based monitoring; mass extinction and synthetic proteins.

Understanding these issues and weighing different solutions requires a unique blend of ethical and scientific awareness. Environmental and natural resource economics provides a powerful framework in which these concerns—intra and intergenerational fairness, complex biophysics, political feasibility, economic efficiency, and more—can be unified and holistically assessed.

In this course, we will focus on developing proficiency with the fundamental issues and tools of environmental and natural resource economics. This course builds on economics principles and provides an overview of environmental and natural resource economics using a range of real world issues. It is dedicated to the proposition that economic reasoning is critical for analyzing the persistence of environmental damage and for designing cost-effective environmental policies.

This course will likely recast familiar problems in unfamiliar lights, or apply tools you know to new settings. This is the point! Don’t feel discouraged if what we’re doing feels at times incomprehensible, unrealistic, too simplistic, overly complex, too easy, or just plain hard. Come to my office hours—I’m here to help. With me as your environmental economics spirit guide, you’ll get through this course with enough challenge to stimulate (but not overwhelm) you.

Specific objectives:

By the end of this course, you will:

  • understand an economic approach to environmental issues;

  • articulate the benefits and costs of environmental protection, and the environmental inputs to production and consumption decisions;

  • be able to use microeconomics to illustrate the theory of environmental policy;

  • comprehend and be able to critically evaluate environmental policies; and

  • be able to suggest policy design principles appropriate to specific environmental issues.

Prerequisites

The only course I assume you have taken prior to this one is ECON 155. We will review key microeconomic concepts during the first weeks of class, though we will move somewhat quickly through them. I assume you are comfortable with basic algebra and quantitative analysis (i.e., interpreting numbers and graphs), or are willing to brush up on these skills early in the semester. Microsoft Excel will be used for some assignments. I assume you have a basic level of competence using spreadsheets (simple calculations, plotting), though I will provide material introducing some aspects of spreadsheet use.

Positionality

I identify as (among other descriptors) an Indian-American man, an economist, a teacher, and a writer. I speak and write primarily in English and have spent my life financially comfortable. Most of my life has been in India and the US. My class, gender presentation, degrees, intellectual pursuits, and American accent are often more prominent in the spaces I inhabit than my ethnic identity, family background, or life experiences.

I recognize that some of the topics we discuss may have deep emotional resonances. I care deeply about not perpetrating harms by discussing issues inappropriately. While it is not your responsibility to educate me when I slip, I hope we can develop the mutual trust to support calling each other into more inclusive and empowered discussions. The topics and examples in this class also reflect my perspective. I recognize that many of you bring other perspectives to our discussions. I aim to support you if and when you choose to express your different perspectives.

I am committed to making this learning experience as fruitful as possible for you. Over my life I have struggled a lot with math. I recognize that my personal background shapes what I do and don’t immediately recognize as challenging. I hope you feel comfortable asking me to explain in more detail if something is confusing.

Etiquette and discourse

At Middlebury, we strive to make our campus a respectful, engaged community that embraces difference with all the complexity and individuality each person brings. Each student in this course is expected to contribute to an inclusive and respectful class environment. Students of all backgrounds including gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and religion are to be treated fairly and with honesty, integrity, and respect. Civil discourse without degrading, abusing, harassing, or silencing others is required of all students in this class.

Being intentional with our words and actions is always important, and particularly so when we discuss heavy topics like some we’ll discuss in this class. Please, be mindful of how you frame points and arguments. Avoid pathologizing language in particular—it is often both harmful and a marker of a poorly-considered argument. Intentional and thoughtful discussions which do not perpetrate harms increase our collective freedom of speech and make it possible for us all to engage more fully. Similarly, when someone notifies us that we have perpetrated harms, robust intellectual discourse is best served when we listen, apologize, reflect, and adjust our behaviors moving forward.

Health and safety

Everyone is required to wear a well-fitting mask (covering mouth and nose) at all times during class. Cloth masks, bandanas, neck gaiters, etc. are ineffective against omicron – wear a surgical mask, KN95, or better.

There is no eating or drinking in the classroom. If you simply must eat or drink please leave the classroom to do this activity. This is for everyone’s benefit.

The first time you violate the mask policy, I will try to discreetly remind you. The second time, I will be less discreet. If it happens more than twice, I reserve the right to ask you to leave the class. Each masking policy infraction (including the first) can result in course points deducted off your final grade. Take this seriously – it can be the difference between letter grades.

In which I am not your parent and come tf on you’re better than that

You’re in one of the most selective elite institutions in the world. You’re here to learn. Missing class because you got sick tearing it up Friday night is one thing (you’re here to hang out too + tradeoffs are real). Getting other people sick because you’re asymptomatic + unmasked in class is Not A Vibe. Getting the prof sick and forcing the class online is cringe af frfr no cap (or whatever the kids are saying these days to mean “not cool”). Seriously. Just wear the damn mask.

Textbook and readings

We’ll be using Markets and the Environment (MAE), by Nathaniel O. Keohane and Sheila M. Olmstead. I use the second edition and recommend you do the same, though I believe the first edition should cover the same concepts (exercises and page numbers may differ). You can get a different edition if you like, though you are responsible for following along with the appropriate sections. It is available at the Middlebury bookstore, on Amazon, and likely in other places too. Used is fine. The textbook is not required—you can certainly do this class without it—but I do recommend you read it. It’s a good book with a lot to reflect on.

Additional materials—chapters from books, articles, podcasts, and videos from the popular press or academic journals—are posted on Canvas. A reading list is found on the last pages of this syllabus.

Sometimes class notes will draw on other sources; these will be referenced, but you are not expected to look at those references.

We will also read academic articles, essays, and book excerpts to complement our understanding of the substantive topics in the course. I will make these readings available on Canvas.

On readings: There is a lot of reading on this syllabus. I do not expect you to read everything in detail! Why is there such a big reading list if I don’t expect you to read everything?

  1. Partly to help bring a diversity of informed perspectives to our discussions (discussions get real fun when everyone’s read some of the same pieces and some different ones);
  2. partly to give you a set of sources to work off of for your final paper; and
  3. partly for later on in your career/life when you may want to learn more about a specific topic.

I do expect you to have at least skimmed all the readings before class (enough to know what they’re about and how they fit into our discussions). Some of the “readings” are podcast episodes or short videos. I will specifically label readings I expect you to have fully digested before class.

Software

We’ll be using Excel/Google Sheets throughout this class. You don’t actually need to use Excel—I use LibreOffice Calc, which is free—you just need a spreadsheet software. We will also use Canvas to host assignments and for submissions, and Panopto for videos.

Communication

In general if your question is about specific problem or math, please include a copy of the original question and your work so far (as a PDF, picture, screenshot, or inline text). I (try to) maintain work-life balance by not checking messages after 5pm Eastern time or during the weekends, but I promise that I will respond to any message you send me. If it’s been more than 48 hours and you haven’t heard from me, please follow up. Simply re-sending your email is sufficient.

Zoom protocol and details

My Zoom room ID is 927 138 2648.

Think of Zoom as the equivalent of a classroom (during scheduled meeting times) or my office (all other times)—it’s rude to interrupt someone else’s scheduled time. Please use Slack or email if you want to ask a question not during scheduled office hours or appointments.

I’ll be in my Zoom room during scheduled meeting times and office hours. Outside of those times, please contact me through Slack or email.

Slack protocol and details

Use this invite link to join our class workspace (use your @middlebury.edu email). You can access the workspace using your browser or from the app.

I’ll be on Slack more frequently (basically whenever I’m at my desk but not shutting off all distractions to work). Use this for questions that don’t need a longer reply or discussions with each other. Please use the appropriate channel for your questions/discussions: problem set-specific questions should be in problem-sets, general course logistics questions should be in general, memes should go in the meme channel, etc. Anything that doesn’t have a specific channel should go into random or general.

If you are asking me a question on Slack or would like me to weigh in on a discussion, please tag me (type @ProfRao once somewhere in your question). I’ll check Slack at least once per day during the week. I won’t be checking Slack over the weekend. If you ask me a question there and I don’t get to it right away, I’ll tag you in my reply. You can also DM me with questions if you don’t want to post them in a public channel. I may post such questions (anonymized) to a public channel if I think it would help others in the class.

Think of Slack as an in-between space where you can ask quick questions and have unscheduled discussions—not as structured as Zoom (also, no video), but more fluid than email.

Email protocol and details

Email is useful for longer questions, and allows more detailed responses. In the subject line, please start with “Econ 265:”. I use email filters to prioritize among the many emails I receive each day; not including the “Econ 265:” subject line will delay my response. Please allow me up to 2 business days to respond to emails (I don’t check my email over the weekend). Don’t hesitate to follow up if I have not replied (you can just re-send the email).

If your question is about specific issue (e.g., specific problem on a problem set), please include a a description of what you’ve tried already (as a PDF, picture, screenshot, or text description in the email) and what you’re currently thinking. There’s not a lot for me to work with if your question is just “I’m not sure what to do”.

Office hours

Just drop in. You don’t need to let me know in advance or ask or anything like that. Just stop by and ask questions. I enjoy getting to know students, and office hours is a nice place to do that. If there are multiple folks in office hours I’ll go through questions round-robin by entry order or try to triage questions so we address as many things as possible.

Seriously, just drop in. I’m just going to be at my desk—probably trying to do something productive, but more likely just scrolling. Stop by. Ask questions. Make chitchat. I’m looking forward to it.

Miscenalleneous notes

  • I love meeting with students. But! Please make an appointment if you want to meet outside of office hours. A quick email or Slack DM is fine. Friday is my “research day”, so I try not to schedule appointments then, and may be slow to respond.

  • This course may seem daunting—we’ll be covering complicated concepts, sometimes at a very abstract level. Don’t panic! With practice, repetition, and patience, it will come together. I’m here to help—don’t hesitate to ask questions.

  • On asking questions: sometimes a concept feels fuzzy or like it isn’t quite clicking, but it’s hard to frame a question precisely. Don’t worry! Ask anyway. We may not get to the bottom of it right away, but we can make progress. Questions about material also tend to be correlated across students, so by asking (especially in a public Slack channel) you often provide a public good to your classmates.

  • This material goes deep. I may at times limit our inquiry to keep us moving along. If you’re curious, I’m happy to talk in more detail in office hours. Think of environmental economics as a very big onion, and this course as pulling the first few layers off—you can chop those layers up and cook with them, plenty of recipes won’t need any more!—but there’s a lot of onion left.

Course deliverables

There are a number of deliverables in this class. You do not have to do all of them to get an A (or whatever grade you’re after). See the grading contract below for details on what you need to do to achieve specific grades.

  • Video responses: I will post videos covering relevant concepts and examples. After you watch a video, you can take a short multiple-choice quiz testing recall and understanding.

  • Problem sets: These are weekly collections of problems to solve. A completed submission is an PDF file with your work towards solutions. When you are unable to completely solve a question, sketch out your work so far, your thoughts on what the answer ought to look like, and what steps you think need to be taken to get there.

  • Problem set corrections: When you submit your problem set, you will receive access to the solutions. You can review the solutions and submit a “redo” file explaining what you got wrong. If you got everything right, you can just say so.

  • Challenge question sets: These are more challenging/involved problem sets intended to test your understanding and stretch your skills. You will have 3-4 weeks per challenge question set.

  • Exam question set: This is a set of even-more-challenging questions comparable to an exam, due by the end of the semester. Like the challenge questions, there are no corrections. Unlike the problem sets and challenge questions, these will be assessed partially on correctness and partially on effort. As with all assignments you are free to ask for help from me and others.

    • I may put out an additional exam question set midway through the semester. Both exam question sets will be equivalent to take-home exams with ~48 hours to complete and submit them.

  • Games: We’ll play some games. Your conduct in these games will be used in determining your engagement grade.

  • Research paper: This is the capstone research project for this class, blending economic analysis of an environmental issue with science communication.

  • Engagement: A portion of your grade (up to 10% of total points available) will be based on participation. This is to reward you for engaging in discussions, playing games, and generally contributing to the class learning experience.

Please feel free to ask me questions about any assignments. However, you will probably get the most out of questions if you ask them after working on them a bit and running into an issue.

More details on deliverables

Video responses

After each video, you can take a short multiple-choice quiz to test your recall and understanding of the video you just watched. The quizzes are accessible on Canvas.

Video quizzes have a small point value attached to reward the effort of watching the video.

Problem sets and corrections

Problem sets are a big part of the learning in this class. I will assign a problem set roughly every week. I strongly encourage you to schedule a weekly time to work on the current problem set.

I want to incentivize you to put effort into the problem sets even if you aren’t sure you have the right answer. My criteria for “effort” is “the question was attempted and completed, or attempted and incomplete with a brief explanation of where and why the student got stuck”. “Brief” means “enough to convey understanding and the issue”, not “everything the student knows about the subject”.

After the due date, you will get access to the solutions. You can then submit problem set corrections: revise your solutions to each question you got wrong and resubmit for additional credit. If you got the question right, just say so. This is to give you an incentive to review the solutions, even if you got everything right. The idea here is that the effort of reviewing solutions is rewarded, whether you got the answer right or not. You don’t have to do corrections, but I encourage it; it would be good to also set aside time to work on corrections for the previous week’s problem set.

I encourage you to work together on problem sets, but please mention the names of those you work with at the top of your submission. They should be credited for their help.

I recommend not spending more than 3 hours on completing a single problem set (including corrections time).

Challenge question sets

One of my favorite things about the toughest questions on well-designed exams is that they teach me something new. We don’t have exams, but I’d still like to give you some tougher questions that stretch your skills a bit more and maybe teach you something new and useful. The challenge questions fill that role. I’ll post 3-4 challenge question sets throughout the course, roughly one every 3-4 weeks. You can discuss the questions and the issues you face with others, but I think you’ll get the most out of these questions if you first make a serious attempt on your own. They’ll often deal with real issues researchers study. You’ll submit challenge question sets on Canvas as PDF files detailing your answers and work, just like you would with a problem set.

I encourage you to work together on challenge question sets, but please mention the names of those you work with at the top of your submission.

I recommend not spending more than 4 hours on a single challenge question set.

Exam question sets

I used to give in-class exams. Then COVID happened and I moved to take-home exams. I haven’t looked back.

There will be up to two exam question sets in this class, potentially one roughly in the middle of the semester and for sure one near the end. They are not exams per se; they are both optional (take them to improve your grade and show what you know, or don’t). But you can think of them as comparable toh take-home open-book (notes and any materials I have shared are ok; general googling and working with others is not) exams. You will have roughly 48 hours to complete them. Late submissions will be penalized an amount proportional to the number of hours late, with a penalty of 100% if the exam is 24 hours late or later.

You don’t need to do these to pass or get a decent grade (not necessary for a B), you probably need it to get a really good grade (generally necessary for an A), and I’m giving you the choice of whether to do them or not.

These exam question sets serve two purposes for those who take them:

  1. They test your knowledge / understanding of facts, concepts, and tools taught in this class.
  2. They force you to confront what you do and don’t know and teach you new things.

This means they will be fairly comprehensive and probably kinda tough. Prepare accordingly.

Games

Games are a great way to learn and develop intuition for tricky concepts. Over the course of the semester, we will have a number of games, some synchronous and some asynchronous. These will cover important concepts like cooperation, institutions, and strategic play, as they apply to environmental issues. Participating in these games will help you and your classmates learn and develop these intuitions. I ask that you play these games in good faith and in the spirit of learning and having fun—please comply with any relevant restrictions on communicating or sharing information with each other. Unless I tell you otherwise, you should assume that you are meant to choose your strategies on your own. Games will count toward the participation component of your grade.

Events

You will learn more in this class if you can attend some events where scholars present their work on environmental issues. Engaging with those scholars, and then writing reflections afterward, will give you more exposure to real issues than simply attending class. To encourage and reward this, there are points attached to attending events and writing short reflections.

I encourage you to attend the Environmental Studies Woodin Colloquium that takes place virtually every other Thursday from 12:40pm-1:30pm Eastern time to learn about other disciplines’ perspectives on conservation and environmental topics. The Colloquium schedule is posted here. Presenters will speak on a topic in their field for about a half hour; then about twenty minutes for Q&A. The first event, on March 4th, will feature the “core panel” of ENVS core course instructors will be the first event, with four Midd ES faculty members speaking to a common theme (“justice,” in this case). Attendance of one of the weekly lectures (or an alternative public lecture on an environmental topic) is strongly recommended. As part of your event response grade, submit a one- or two-page written response (single-spaced or double-spaced) describing how the lecture relates to the material we are covering in class.

You are required to attend or view the recording of Lala Ma’s Rohatyn Center on Global Affairs’ Global Economics lecture on March 17th 2021 (link—scroll down for the link to this event). Professor Ma is a leading expert on the economics of environmental justice, and this is a great opportunity to learn from her expertise. After viewing the recording, submit a one- or two-page written response (single-spaced or double-spaced) describing how the topics of her seminar relate to the materials we are covering in class. Below is a brief description of the talk:

Environmental Justice: The Causes and Consequences of Inequitable Pollution Exposure The environmental justice literature has found that the poor and people of color are disproportionately exposed to pollution. This talk discusses the research documenting correlations between pollution and demographics and the potential causes of these correlations from an economics perspective. Understanding the sources of inequitable pollution burdens has implications for crafting effective policy and for understanding the disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research paper

There are many pressing and interesting environmental economics problems in the world, and the time does not allow to cover them all in this class. To address your interests and practice applying the tools learnt in this class, we will have one short paper (10-12 pages, double-spaced) on topics of your choice due Friday December 16 (PDF on Canvas). You will need to discuss your topic with me and submit a one-page proposal by Friday November 4 on Canvas so that I can provide feedback and guidance.

In the honor code section I say you can collaborate on anything “except the research paper”, which is worth clarifying. You are free to discuss your research paper with others, to review each others work and calculations, and even solicit suggestions. But you must submit your own work, reflecting your own effort and interests. It’s fine if you end up asking the same question as someone else in the class (this happens surprisingly frequently in academic research), but you must have your own analysis and interpretation. This doesn’t mean you need to disagree with others working in similar areas. Where you use someone else’s ideas, you must cite them. Interestingly, self-plagiarism is a thing—you must also cite yourself if you are using an idea you developed in another work. In general I would like you to write an original paper, but if you are working on a related assignment for another class and would like to cross-reference or otherwise combine them, come talk to me. I highly recommend you reach out to Ryan Clement, the Economics reference librarian. Ryan has a wealth of knowledge about economic data and literature. His email is , and his website is at go.middlebury.edu/ryan. Ryan is also very popular, especially near the end of the semester (many people know how helpful he is and many courses have some kind of research paper assignment), so you should schedule time early to make sure you get a spot.

I expect you to take full advantage of the many resources on offer at Middlebury while remaining true to the Honor Code. This means I fully support you in (for example) going to the writing center and working closely with people there to hone your writing, but you must ensure that you are polishing your own ideas and not someone else’s. Similarly, I encourage you to go to the library and work with the librarians to find more resources, but be sure to cite what you use and provide your own insights.

Where you use someone else’s ideas, you must cite them. This applies to any source you use: popular press articles, academic sources, etc. Use inline citations (not footnotes) in the Chicago Author-Date style used in Economics. Your bibliography should sit after the main text.

You’ll submit the research papers as PDF files on Canvas.

I recommend starting the research paper early.

Research paper assessment rubric

I will provide a detailed rubric for the research paper roughly halfway through the semester, around Friday October 21.

Engagement

A small portion of the total points available in the class (up to 10%) will be awarded for engaging in class activities (e.g., scheduled meetings, games) and generally contributing to a positive overall learning environment (e.g., helping each other out, asking questions and making space for each other to ask questions). Be an active participant in discussions and games, help create a good learning environment, and you’ll get the points.

Remember: being engaged in a class is about maximizing your own learning and your classmates’. “Being engaged” doesn’t mean talking all the time, though it can mean asking questions. It means making efforts to improve the class learning environment – by being present, by asking questions, by helping others during activities, and by showing up having done the work. Frequently missing class, not participating in activities, watching sports during class time – these are all examples of behaviors which will harm your engagement score.

Labor-based grading contract

The concept

Grading can be problematic. It induces anxiety and stress, fosters competition amongst students, induces proclivities towards honor code violations, and focuses student time and attention on grades instead of learning. Many professors also think it is the worst part of our jobs. Grading takes up a lot of time and typically doesn’t result in timely or productive feedback. Finally, grading can create an adversarial relationship between professors and students; office hours discussions around grades (e.g. “What can I do to get a better grade?”, “Can I do extra credit?”) are generally unpleasant for all involved.

All that said, I still have to assign you a final grade in the course.

What to do?

Instead of receiving a final letter grade based only on mastery of course materials, I will reward you based on the effort that you put into the class and the mastery you demonstrate. In a traditional grading approach, your scores on assignments are determined by how correct your answers were, and the scores determine your grade (grades are based on knowledge). In this grading contract, assignments are scored on a mix of completeness and correctness (grades based on labor and knowledge).

The underlying theory here is that exerting effort has benefits even when it feels like you’re not getting much out of it. I want to rewire the usual effort-output-reward loop a bit so that you’re more directly incentivized to do things that will (on average) help you learn, even if in the moment it feels like a struggle and you’re not getting anywhere. From what I’ve seen, all else equal,

  • an effortful attempt almost always teaches you more than no attempt,
  • an effortful-but-incorrect attempt often teaches you about as much as an effortful-but-correct attempt, and
  • the average effortful-but-incorrect attempt teaches you more than the average effortless-but-correct attempt.

Put simply, you learn more from putting effort in than you do from being correct.

Why do this?

I start from the premise that if you’re in this class, you want to (a) learn environmental economics and (b) achieve a certain grade. All too often, course (and other) incentives students guide students to focus on more on getting good grades than on actually learning. With this system, I hope to remove uncertainty from your final grade (you can achieve the grade you want with a relatively well-understood effort allocation) and make it easier for you to learn (less anxiety about assessments and more focus on process). Think about this question: “If I just wanted to learn this material and wasn’t getting a grade for this assignment, would I still do it?” If the answer is “No”, then maybe the assignment isn’t the best use of your time.

I want to take the emphasis away from grades, and put it back on where it belongs: the process of learning.

Finally, labor-based contracts create a more (but not totally) equitable environment. Using a traditional grading system, students that have prior knowledge of the topic have a distinct advantage. With labor-based contracts, all students must put in time and effort; you cannot coast based on what you already know.

What does this look like?

There will be a set of assignments that you can choose to do. When you submit an assignment, it is either accepted (receive credit) or declined (no credit). Anything that requires effort will be eligible for credit. Since we are focused on your effort and not knowledge, there will be no exams in this course. (You heard that correctly. No exams. A godsend to both students and professors.)

There are no hard due dates—things happen, and I’m tired of emails where we negotiate over an extra few hours or days (you try to convince me your case is serious, I try to convince you it’s ok to submit a little earlier, we both get tired and frustrated by the interaction). If you need an extra day or two, just take it and let me know. It’s not like you won’t learn the material if you do it a day late. I have and will still put due dates into Canvas—research and prior student feedback indicates that acting as though there are due dates helps students learn without getting overwhelmed. You will definitely learn more if you do a little bit every week than if you push it all to the end of the semester. But you’re an adult, and have more information about your marginal costs of effort at different times than I do. I give you my trust; use it wisely.

Three types of assignments will be graded for correctness as well as completeness: the challenge questions, the exam question set, and the research paper. These assignments are meant to showcase your mastery of the material, so you must be able to demonstrate not only effort but understanding. Doing well on these assignments will help you get into the A- / A range.

In case it wasn’t obvious, I am not Emma Stone

I want to be very clear: the grading contract does not mean that this class is “an easy A”. In all likelihood, getting an A in this class will require more work than getting an A in some other classes.

The mechanics

Each grade requires you to obtain a minimum number of points in the course. You can get points by completing assignments and receiving credit for them. The only assignment where I will track and reward variation in output quality (beyond determining whether a submission is effortful enough to earn credit) is the research paper. The research paper assessment rubric will be discussed later in the course. Every assignment except the research paper will be assessed on an accept/decline basis.

The points per assignment of each type are in the first table below. The subsequent table shows one (recommended) approach to securing specific grades. The point requirements for each grade are listed alongside the recommended quantity of assignments to complete to get there.

Assignment point values
Assignment Point value per assignment Planned number of assignments Total value of assignment category
Video quizzes 2 30 60
Problem sets 5.5 10 55
Problem set corrections 3.5 10 35
Event reflections 10 3 30
Challenge questions 15 4 60
Participation Up to 30 (including games) - 30
Exam question set Up to 35 1 35
Paper Up to 45 (including proposal) 1 45

College resources

The college has many resources to help you when you are struggling. You can find a list of resources here.

I’d like to make a particular mention of the Anderson Freeman Resource Center. The AFC has some great programming, including a peer mentorship program, peer writing tutoring, wellness support, counseling, and social events (granted we’re in a pandemic, but even online events can be nice). The AFC is physically located at Carr Hall and can be reached at or 802-443-2214.

Accommodations

Students who have Letters of Accommodation in this class are encouraged to contact me as early in the semester as possible to ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion. For those without Letters of Accommodation, assistance is available to eligible students through Student Accessibility Services. Please contact Jodi Litchfield or Peter Ploegman, the ADA Coordinators, for more information: Peter Ploegman can be reached at or 802-443-2382 and Jodi Litchfield can be reached at or 802-443-5936. All discussions will remain confidential.I will make best efforts to provide accommodations but, given the current circumstances, I can’t guarantee the requirements of the letter will be met.

Research and the library

You may need to find data for your research paper. I encourage you to go to the library and work with the librarians to find more resources, but be sure to cite what you use and provide your own insights. I highly recommend you reach out to Ryan Clement, the Economics reference librarian, as soon as you start settling on a topic. Ryan is a wealth of knowledge about economic data and literature. His email is , and his website is at go.middlebury.edu/ryan.

Honor code

I expect you to adhere to the Middlebury Honor Code. The Middlebury Honor Code is described at go/honorcode. You can collaborate on all assignments except the research paper (see the “research paper” section under “More details on deliverables” for more details). If you collaborate with someone, you must acknowledge those you worked with and submit your own final writeup. For the research paper, an acknowledgements section at the back is a good way to do this.

Deadlines and extensions

I expect you to submit work by the deadlines. Why? It really helps facilitate our group discussions. It also keeps students on track for the course. We all know that students/professors prioritize what they need to do by deadlines.

Late submissions will be accepted for reduced credit with a penalty proportional to their lateness, reflecting their diminished learning value when completed late. There is a small grace period immediately after the due date before the penalty kicks in. An assignment submitted 14 calendar days (or more) later than the original submission deadline will receive no credit.

There is an element of externality pricing to this: the learning environment for all is diminished when some are unprepared. The reduced credit reflects this, too. A submission is considered late if it is submitted after the next submission deadline (5 pm EST on a day with an assignment due).

It’s not a problem if you need a small extension (small = not enough to be considered late), just send me a Slack DM letting me know that you’ll be submitting it a little later. If you need a longer extension, reach out and we can discuss.

Since you won’t be penalized for effortful-but-incorrect answers, please don’t take extensions if you’re at the wall and unsure if your answers are correct. I don’t mind extensions, but it won’t do much for your learning beyond maybe getting you frustrated. You’re almost surely better off just submitting your effortful attempts and reviewing the solutions carefully.

Names and Pronouns

If you go by a different name or pronouns than what is listed on the roster, please let me know. I expect us to refer to each other by our preferred names and pronouns.

Basic needs

Sometimes people get sick (even without a pandemic in the background), or are otherwise unable to come to class/submit assignments for whatever reason. That’s ok. If you need to take time off for illness, a mental health break, or some other reason, please do so. You don’t need to let me know in advance, though advance notice is always appreciated. If you missed a longer stretch of classes/assignments (e.g. two weeks because of COVID) you can make up the assignments with no penalty. I’m always happy to discuss course content you’re struggling with, just send me an email/slack DM and we’ll go from there.

A brief note letting me know where you’re at and what I can do to support you is fine, even if it’s after the fact. I don’t need doctor’s letters or detailed explanations. My working assumption is that you want to be in class and learn and that if you’re not there it’s because something came up and you were either constrained or chose to do whatever was marginally most valuable/important to you. Either way, I respect your choice. It’s fine if you choose not to share any details with me, and fine if you do (though I am bound by College requirements as a mandatory reporter for Title IX issues—see the link for details about what I am unable to keep confidential). My goal to make sure you’re able to take time when you need it without seeking approvals or permissions and with the support you need to catch up. If you anticipate or experience a particularly long absence, please do reach out so I’m aware you’re ok (or not) and I can help you with any material you’re struggling with.

Please take care of yourself. College can be a demanding (and rewarding) experience. If you or one of your friends, peers, classmates is facing mental health problems, please consider seeking help. Resources include your Common’s Dean, Resident Life Staff, Middlebury College Counseling Center, and ULifeLine website.

Class schedule/semester at a glance

The schedule below shows major assignments and due dates for the course. I will revise the schedule as/when things change. Unless specifically instructed otherwise, assume all assignments are due at midnight Eastern US time (or some more-convenient time for your own internal motivation) of the day they are listed as due.

When we are playing games, you are expected to submit your moves before midnight Eastern US time (or some more-convenient time for your own internal motivation) on Friday of the week we’re playing. I will process all the moves on Monday morning after office hours.

The last week of class (week 12) is a little uncertain at the moment. Currently, I’m scheduled to be at a space economics conference in Bordeaux, France. The times and in-person/virtual piece is still unknown. There’s a chance that class in the last week is virtual, or cancelled. Either way the material will still be available. If class is cancelled, I will hold makeup office hours.

Key:

  • PS: Problem set
  • CQ: Challenge question set
  • VQ: Video quiz
  • ER: Event reflection
  • EQ: Exam question set
Week Week of MAE section Key concepts Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
1 Sep 12 - Syllabus, intro Lecture
2 Sep 19 Chapter 2 Efficiency and Week 2 VQs due, Lecture Discussion PS1 due
the equimarginal PS1 issued
rule; CQ1 issued
“what’s the right decision?”
-/-
3 Sep 26 Chapter 3 Valuation, Week 3 VQs due, No class No class PS2 due,
measuring benefits PS2 issued PS1 corrections due
and costs;
“how do we measure these things?”
-/-
4 Oct 3 Chapter 4/5 Market success and Week 4 VQs due, Discussion Problem-solving PS3 due,
market failures in PS3 issued PS2 corrections due,
the environmental PS2 corrections due CQ1 due
realm;
“where do we step in, how, and why?”
-/-
5 Oct 10 Chapter 6 Natural resources I: Week 5 VQs due, Discussion Problem-solving PS4 due,
nonrenewables and PS4 issued PS3 corrections due
the Hotelling rule; CQ2 issued
“oil, gas, and minerals”
-/-
6 Oct 17 Chapter 7 Natural resources II: Week 6 VQs due, Discussion Problem-solving PS5 due,
renewables and PS5 issued PS4 corrections due
new frontiers;
“fish, forests, and orbits”
-/-
7 Oct 24 Chapter 8 Environmental policy I: Week 7 VQs due, Discussion Problem-solving PS6 due,
principles and PS6 issued PS5 corrections due,
policy choice; CQ2 due
“what does/can policy do?”
-/-
8 Oct 31 Chapter 9 Environmental policy II: Week 8 VQs due, Discussion Problem-solving PS7 due,
real-world issues and PS7 issued PS6 corrections due,
comparisons; CQ3 issued Research proposal due
“how would this actually work?”
-/-
9 Nov 7 Chapter 10 Environmental policy III: Week 9 VQs due, Discussion No class PS8 due,
real-world examples and PS8 issued PS7 corrections due
design considerations;
“if this is so clever,
where can I see it?”
-/-
10 Nov 14 Chapter ?? Beyond rich areas: Week 10 VQs due, Discussion Problem-solving PS9 due,
environmental issues PS9 issued PS8 corrections due,
and economic development; CQ3 due
“cool story, but does it scale?”
-/-
11 Nov 28 Chapter ?? Beyond efficiency: Week 11 VQs due, Discussion Problem-solving PS10 due,
environmental justice PS10 issued, PS9 corrections due
and equity; CQ4 issued
“the future is here, just
unevenly distributed”
-/-
12 Dec 5 Chapter 11 Sustainability and growth: Week 12 VQs due TBD TBD PS10 corrections due
green economics on a warming planet;
the next 500 years;
are we doomed?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ CQ4, EQ due
Finals Dec 12 No class -/- Research paper due, Event reflections due