Thursday, December 3, 2015

Thoughts on the course?

What topics did you find most/least useful? 
Most/least interesting?
What were your main takeaways from the course?
Was resource economics what you expected?

No need to answer all of these....

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I really liked learning about how international agreements between large multinational pharmaceutical companies and developing nations can work together to benefit society. not only by discovering more biodiversity, but also by preserving tropical forests around the world.

McKinley Carlton said...

I think that my favorite topic discussed this semester was the non-market valuation. I thought it was really interesting that we have ways to put a price on resources that aren't sold in market.
I also really enjoyed the section of regulatory takings and all of the cases that we discussed in class.
The main takeaway, of course, would be that no policy is perfect. Each one has its pros and cons.

Amythest Lee said...

My favorite topic we discussed this semester was discounting and discount rates. It was interesting to me to talk about how poor people and governments have higher discount rates, and would be less likely to get involved with a high risk project where the benefits would be spread out over time. It's something important to think about considering most of the world's biodiversity is located in poor countries.

Unknown said...

I enjoyed learning about externalities a lot. I never understood the concept of subsidies until we discussed this topic. I also really enjoyed learning about regulatory takings. I’m always interested if it has to do with my personal rights.
Resource economics was very insightful for me personally. I got something out of each topic we discussed. I believe that this class will have an impact on how I look at things in the future. Thank you Dr. Schuhmann for an informative and impactful semester.

Grant Houser said...

I think the most interesting thing we learned about was the valuation methods. Its interesting how you can look at the things that surround say a park or natural area and they can reflect the value of thing that isn't bought or sold and people don't think about it having a direct value. This is also a good way to decide when developing land what is actually worth developing or leaving it the way it was. The main thing that i got from this class is that you have to look at your surroundings when you are considering an action. When you change something it can have effects that you didn't intend for it to have.

Andrew McCulley said...

I most enjoyed learning about how to influence markets to account for negative externalities. It's often believed that all taxes result in suboptimal outcomes on the individual level, but seeing the intuition behind Pigouvian taxes really helped me to understand how such taxes can yield solutions that are more optimal for society. Overall I really enjoyed every topic in the course.

Claire Ferebee said...

I enjoyed taking this class over the course of the semester. One of the topics in which I found to be most interesting was the economics of land including the land rents and allocation of the land as well as the property rights. It was interesting to relate it to the downtown Wilmington example in relation to the closeness to the port. I was able to achieve learning something impactful from each of the topics in the course; all of these things will provide me with a great view and a gained knowledge on things I may see in the future. Thanks for a great semester!

Shelby White said...

This was the first economics course I have ever taken and I really enjoyed it. I now plan to pursue natural resource economics work in the future. Beforehand, I did not understand how much could be discovered through economics and how important it was in making policy decisions.

The most interesting topic was non-market valuation methods and the use of CVM and choice-modeling. These valuation methods can help focus on what is really important to individuals and how certain policy changes will impact ways of life. The sections on land use and temperate and tropical forests were also interesting because I did not have prior knowledge as to how the decision-making process worked in these areas.

Will Cornette said...

I thought the topics on non market valuation and deforestation were really interesting. It's intriguing to see how economists value environmental goods and how these valuations play a part in policy development. I was unaware of negative externalities and their impact on markets, and it's good to know there are some policies in place to combat them. A big thing I learned from the course was how much more effective incentive based policies are compared to command and control, and, hopefully, the lawmakers responsible for protecting our environment are aware of this. Overall, I really enjoyed the course and found most of the topics to be really beneficial to my economics concentration.

Rachel Allen said...

This class has been one of the most useful natural resource/ environmental classes that I have ever taken. The skill of non-market valuation is something that is very important and also over looked in a lot of environmental decisions. The world revolves around money and being able to look at the economic side of natural resources is a very important skill when making these policies. This class presented these issues from a different lens and I look at the environment in a very different light. Valuation was by far the most interesting topic in this class because it was so surprising how valuable some environments and natural resources are. This is so important when wanting to make a case for environmental conservation. This course was eye-opening into how hard it can be to make policies for natural resources because there is no perfect policy. Overall, this was a great course that opened my eyes to a new side of natural resources and the environment and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to go to work with the environment or natural resources because this is an important concept to understand.