Possible Paper Topics for Economics 480

Environmental Economics
Spring 2007

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1. The Maquiladora Effect: The Environmental Implications of NAFTA.
2. Global Environmental Regulation: Issues of Equity and Responsibility in Free Trade.
3. Curb-side Recycling and Trash Collection in Houston.
4. The Cleaning up of Houston Ship Channel.
5. NAFTA: An Environmental and Economic Agreement.
6. Effects of Population Growth, World Population Growth.
7. Of Hotelling Rules and Brighter Things.
8. Different Methods to Allocate and Transfer Water Rights in the United States.
9. Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation.
10. Perceptions of Risk and the Effect of the Natural Hazards.
11. The Conflict of Public Land Usage.
12. Decreasing Private Auto Emissions Through New Technologies and Market Based Control Measure.
13. Industrial Sustainability.
14. Use of Property Rights to Protect Valuable Forests.
15. Alaskan Oil Production and the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.
16. The Tragedy of the Commons: A Game Theoretic Approach.
17. Developing Houston’s Transportations Systems.
18. Debt-for-Nature Swaps.
19. The Rainforest Resources.
20. Liability Under the 1980 Environmental Act.
21. Co-generation and Desalination as a Solution to Impending Water Shortages.
22. The Success of Emission Reduction Programs in Los Angles.
23. Non Point Source Pollution and Other Farming Problems.
24. Economic Issues of Global Warming: Selecting an Appropriate Policy Instrument.
25. Environmental Law, the Environment and Environmental Management.
26. Government and Industry Responses to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.
27. Mobile Source Air Pollution.
28. The Philosophy of the Tragedy of the Commons.
29. The A, B, Cs of the Superfund.
30. The Need for Accurate Valuation in Biodiversity.
31. Arctic Oil Development: In Search of the Real Issue.
32. Towards Environmental Justice in Houston.
33. Ozone Control: Los Angeles versus Houston.
34. Alternative-Fuel Technology in Commuter Vehicles.
35. An Examination of Potential Environmental and Ecological Damage and the Policy Responses.
36. The Debate Between Endangered Salmon and Four Hydroelectric Dams.
37. Sport Utility Vehicles: Fun or Fatal?
38. The Economics of Easter Island.
39. Bayport: The Environmental Consequences of Economic Growth.
40. The Necessary Role of Corporations in Environmental Conservation: A Brief History of Corporate Efforts and the Need for Further Business Action in the Pursuit for Sustainability.
41. Eco-Consumerism and Sustainability.
42. Smog City – Houston.
43. Population Control: Why was China so Successful: An Inquiry into the Override and Voluntary Approaches of Chinese Population Control Policy.
44. The Ethics of Tradeable Permits.
45. The Use of Contingent Valuation in Decision Making Process.
46. Students might consider giving priority to global warming, limits to growth and sustainable development, and biodiversity. The literature on these topics is very extensive and we will not have time to do justice to all of the important issues related to these questions.
47. Papers on environmental justice and environmental ethics would be welcomed. Also, historical essays on environmental issues.
48. You might consider a Houston oriented project.
49. What is ecological economics?
50. Environmental problems in developing countries.
51. Does economic growth promote or harm environmental quality?