Dr Marion Dumas

Dr Aurelien Saussay

This course is available on the Double Master of Public Administration (LSE-Columbia), Double Master of Public Administration (LSE-Sciences Po), Double Master of Public Administration (LSE-University of Toronto), Master of Public Administration, Master of Public Policy, MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Hertie), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and NUS), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Tokyo) and MPA in Data Science for Public Policy. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

Priority is given to students from the School of Public Policy.  Students from other programmes will be considered if places remain. MPP students, second year MPA Double and Dual Degree students and students from outside of the School of Public Policy should submit a statement in support of their request. Previous economics and econometrics are required for all students as well as prior climate policy experience (please give details in your statement).

Deadline for application: 9am on Monday of AT Week 1 (including requests from School of Public Policy students). We aim to inform students of the outcome of their request by 12noon on Tuesday of AT Week 1. 

For queries contact: spp.doubledegrees@lse.ac.uk

Assumed prior knowledge:

The expectation is that students will have previously taken PP440 and PP455 or equivalent courses. Students who have not taken PP440 and PP455 (including MPA Dual and Double Degree students spending Year 2 at LSE) will require permission from the course lecturer to attend the course. Students should be familiar with the basic logic of causal inference and with common empirical approaches used in applied policy research. The course is intended for students who are comfortable interpreting quantitative evidence, even if they have not previously used all of the specific methods discussed in the course. The course also assumes prior exposure to economics, including introductory microeconomics. It is designed as an advanced option for students who have already completed an introductory course in climate policy, such as PP417A or PP417W, and who wish to deepen their understanding of climate and environmental policy through close engagement with empirical research and policy analysis.

This course offers an advanced engagement with the research frontier in climate and environmental policy and its implications for the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policy in the environmental space. It is intended for students who want to move beyond foundational concepts towards a deeper understanding of major policy challenges and the role of empirical evidence in addressing them. The syllabus covers a range of contemporary topics: it will include climate damages, adaptation, carbon pricing, energy markets, deforestation, fisheries, the adoption of low-carbon technologies, and policy beliefs and public support for environmental action. Across these topics, we explore the major policy debates and how evidence is used to inform policy design.

The course is structured around close reading and discussion of academic papers, and hands-on data projects. Lectures will be split equally between a lecture and discussion of assigned readings. We ask students to prepare and engage in in-depth discussion of research papers so that they become sophisticated users of research. Seminars will be devoted to data projects. The goal of the data projects is for students to gain an understanding of relevant measurements of the natural and social world to guide climate and environmental policy and gain some experience with using and interpreting the associated data sources.

The selection of readings, examples, and seminar materials is designed to provide students with a broad and comparative perspective on climate and environmental policy across different institutional and geographical settings. Cases will draw on a variety of contexts, from land-use policy in the Amazon to energy transition policies in emerging and advanced economies, enabling students to compare how policy challenges and policy effectiveness vary across settings. Throughout the course, particular attention will be paid to the trade-offs and complementarities between policy objectives, including efficiency, equity, political feasibility, and broader social and distributional consequences.

20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

This course consists of a 2 hour lecture and 1 hour seminar each week - students are expected to attend both the lecture and seminar.

Proposal.

A formative assessment will be due before Reading Week and will consist of a short proposal identifying the two papers the student intends to use for the final written assessment, with a brief justification for each choice. One paper will be selected for methodological evaluation and the other for policy relevance assessment. Feedback will be provided to help ensure that the student has chosen suitable papers and is on track for the final submission.
 

Note: these readings are illustrative at this stage, and subject to change. The full set of required readings will be larger (20 papers in total).

• Andersson, J. J. (2019). Carbon taxes and CO2 emissions: Sweden as a case study. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 11(4), 1-30. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257%2Fpol.20170144&=&from=f
• Auffhammer, M. (2022). Climate Adaptive Response Estimation: Short and long run impacts of climate change on residential electricity and natural gas consumption. Journal of Environmental and Economics Management, 114, 102669. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069622000432?via%3Dihub
• Bolton, P., & Kacperczyk, M. (2023). Global pricing of carbon‐transition risk. The Journal of Finance, 78(6), 3677-3754.                     https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jofi.13272
• Assunção, Juliano, Clarissa Gandour, and Romero Rocha. "DETER-ing deforestation in the Amazon: environmental monitoring and law enforcement." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 15.2 (2023): 125-156.  https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20200196
• Dee, Laura E., et al. "Clarifying the effect of biodiversity on productivity in natural ecosystems with longitudinal data and methods for causal inference." Nature Communications 14.1 (2023): 2607. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37194-5
• Howell, Sabrina T. "Financing innovation: Evidence from R&D grants." American economic review 107.4 (2017): 1136-1164.  https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20150808

Presentation (40%).

Essay (60%, 3000 words).

The assessment for this course is designed to reflect its core aims: developing students’ close reading skills, their ability to discuss empirical research critically, and their capacity to evaluate how research informs climate and environmental policy.

• Oral Discussion of a Research Paper (40%): During the term, each student will give a short oral presentation on an assigned or selected research paper, followed by discussion and questions. The presentation will move beyond summary to offer a critical engagement with the paper’s argument, evidence, and implications. Students will be expected to identify key strengths and limitations of the paper, situate it within broader course themes, and respond to questions from peers and the lecturer. This assessment is intended to develop students’ close reading skills and their ability to communicate a critical appraisal of empirical research clearly and concisely.
   
• Quantitative Policy Essay (60%): Specifically, this will involve:

  1) Identifying and clearly formulating a focused climate or environmental policy problem set in a well-defined and specific context, of the student's choice.

  2) Identifying one or two relevant datasets that help quantify aspects of the policy problem, whether it be the scale of the problem, the impact of past interventions or the key variables that structure the problem.

  3) Develop a clear argument around the case, backed and illustrated by the data identified by the student. This argument could be formulated as a policy solution proposal, an assessment about future consequences of inaction, why a particular case doesn’t fit within standard prescriptions, etc.

  Students will submit a one-page proposal before reading week to get feedback on their essay plan. This will ensure that they receive the proper guidance and help to develop their own project.

This assessment structure is designed to ensure strong alignment between the course’s learning outcomes, seminar discussions, and workshop activities. It allows students to demonstrate both analytical rigour in evaluating empirical research and substantive judgement in assessing its relevance for environmental public policy.