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Climate Change and Economics 101: Teaching the Greatest Market Failure

Author

Listed:
  • John Chung-En Liu

    (Department of Sociology, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 90041, USA)

  • Yoram Bauman

    (Independent Scholar, The Stand-up Economist, Salt Lake City, UT 84105, USA)

  • Yating Chuang

    (UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA
    Department of Economics, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 90041, USA)

Abstract

In this paper, we explore how principles of economics courses prepare undergraduate students to think about climate change. We collected a comprehensive list of twenty-seven introductory economics textbooks in the United States and analyzed their coverage of climate change. Our finding shows that not all texts touch upon climate science, and a small subset deviates from the scientific consensus on the human causes of climate change. All texts conceptualize climate change as a problem of carbon emission’s negative externalities and the preferred market-based solutions, such as emission trading and Pigouvian tax. Besides externality, some authors include various useful points of engagement through GDP (Gross domestic product) accounting, economic growth, collective action problems, cost–benefit analysis, and global inequality. In the end, we provide suggestions for economics educators to innovate the current introductory curriculum to better cope with the climate crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • John Chung-En Liu & Yoram Bauman & Yating Chuang, 2019. "Climate Change and Economics 101: Teaching the Greatest Market Failure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-12, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:5:p:1340-:d:210752
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Murau, Steffen & Haas, Armin & Guter-Sandu, Andrei, 2022. "Monetary Architecture and the Green Transition," SocArXiv sw5tu, Center for Open Science.
    2. Maximilian Tallgauer & Christoph Schank, 2023. "Rethinking Economics Education for Sustainable Development: A Posthumanist Practice Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-14, June.

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