Ecological Economics (ESSM 671, RENR 659, AGEC 659)

This is a 3 credit hour graduate course that introduces students to the linkages between ecological and economic systems. Ecological Economics is defined as the study of the relationships between ecosystems and economic systems.  It encourages innovative ways of thinking about these inexorably connected but often-disparate disciplines. According to one of its founders, Robert Costanza, Ecological Economics is a trans-disciplinary approach that “recognizes the need to make economies more cognizant of ecological impacts and dependencies; to make ecology more sensitive to economic forces, incentives and constraints; and to treat integrated economic-ecological systems with a common set of conceptual and analytical tools” (Robert Costanza, 1989. Ecological Economics, 1:1-7).