Pre-Conference Course

Course: Applying Game Theory and Behavioral Economics
to the Environment

June 27-28, 2010, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada

Description

This two-day course will be held at the Université du Québec à Montréal immediately before the 4th World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists (www.wcere2010.org).  It is intended for researchers from developing countries.  Topics will include:

Session 1: Introduction to game theory—Multi-person decision theory (equilibrium beliefs, equilibrium strategies); time, credibility, and commitment; trust and the logic of equilibria in repeated games.

Session 2: Social norms and social capital—Local use of common pool resources, with coverage of repeated games and evolutionary game theory.

Session 3: International public goods—International environmental agreements, climate treaties, and control and eradication of infectious diseases.

Session 4: Behavioral economics—Behavioral game theory, mechanism design, demand revelation for nonmarket goods and actual bidding behavior.

The course will be taught by four distinguished economists:

Sir Partha Dasgupta (Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics, University of Cambridge, UK)

Scott Barrett (Lenfest Professor of Natural Resource Economics, Columbia University, USA)

Jason Shogren (Stroock Professor of Natural Resource Conservation and Management, University of Wyoming, USA)

E. Somanathan (Professor, Indian Statistical Institute, India).

The course is organized by the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden; www.beijer.kva.se) and funded by the Beijer Institute and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

Cost and scholarships

There is no fee for the course.  The Beijer Institute will provide lunch on both days of the course and dinner on the first day for all participants.  In addition, the Institute is offering a limited number of scholarships, which will cover roundtrip airfare, lodging during the course and the Congress, and a reduced registration fee for the Congress.  Participants will be responsible for any remaining costs.  Scholarships will be allocated preferentially to current or past recipients of research grants from the regional environmental economics networks CEEPA/RANESA, EEPSEA, LACEEP and SANDEE, and to researchers who have a paper accepted for presentation at the Congress.  Some of these scholarships are financed by a fund created by the organizers of EAERE2009.

Additional scholarships will be available from the Canadian International Development Research Council (IDRC) for researchers residing in developing countries.  These scholarships require that a paper by the researcher be accepted for presentation at the Congress.

Application

By April 30, 2010, developing country researchers interested in participating in the course should e-mail a short expression of interest in the course to:

Christina Leijonhufvud (course administrator)
The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics
chris@beijer.kva.se

Submission of expressions of interest earlier than April 30 is strongly encouraged.  Applicants should attach their CV and should state whether they have submitted a paper for presentation at the Congress and whether they are requesting scholarship support.  Recipients of research grants from the regional environmental economics networks should simultaneously submit their expressions of interest to the respective network directors.
 
Application for scholarship support from IDRC should be made ideally when papers are submitted for presentation at the Congress, but in all cases before March 15, 2010.  This application can be made on the Congress web site  (http://www.wcere2010.org/grants.html  when papers are submitted for presentation.  Please note that the deadline for submitting papers to the Congress is January 31, 2010.