Sustainable Business and Environmental Economics Concentration

E&S students with a concentration in Sustainable Business and Environmental Economics (formerly Environmental Economics (EE)) will use economic principles to understand the interrelation between society and the environment and study how environmental policies should be structured to address the environmental challenges by understanding behavioral responses of economic agents to these policies.

If you are ready to declare your concentration, fill out this form.

Course requirements

Semester Key: F=Fall, S=Spring, Su=Summer

Core curriculum required choice

  • AEM/ENVS 2500 - Environmental and Resource Economics (F, 3 cr, in Core Requirements)

Required courses

  • MATH 1110 - Calculus I (F, S, Su, 4 cr)
    • AP/IB credit accepted.
  • ECON 1110 - Introductory Microeconomics (F, W, S, Su, 3 cr)
    • AP/IB credit accepted.
  • ECON 1120 - Introductory Macroeconomics (F, W, S, Su, 3 cr)
    • AP/IB credit accepted.
  • ECON 3030 - Intermediate Microeconomic Theory (F, S, Su, 4 cr) OR AEM 2600 - Managerial Economics (F, 3 cr)

Resource/Environmental economics

Choose a minimum of 5.5 credits (2 - 3 courses):

  • AEM 3115 – Green Energy Strategies (F, 3 cr)
  • AEM 4090 – Environmental Finance and Markets (S, 3 cr)
  • AEM 4490 – Financial Markets and Sustainability (F, 3 cr)
  • AEM 4500/ECON 3860 – Resource Economics (S, 3 cr)
  • AEM 4510*/ECON 3865 – Environmental Economics (S, 3 cr) OR [ECON 3850* – Economics and Environmental Policy] (F, 3 cr) *forbidden overlaps
  • [AEM 4515/ECON 3870 – Business and Economics of Energy] (F, 3 cr)
  • [AEM 4580 – The Economics and Psychology of Sustainable Business] (F, 1.5 cr) (No longer offered.)
  • AEM 4585 – Sustainable Business (F, 3 cr)
  • AEM 4940 – Climate Finance (F, 3 cr)
  • AEM 4940 – Cost-Benefit Analysis for Business and Environment (S, 3 cr) (Prerequisite: AEM 2600 or equivalent)
  • NBA 6030 – Strategies for Sustainability (S, 1.5 cr, seniors only)
  • NBA 6380 – Finance and Sustainable Global Enterprise Colloquium (S, 1 cr, seniors only)                                                              

Data analysis/econometrics

Choose 1 course from the following:

  • [AEM/INFO 2770 - Excursions in Computational Sustainability] (S, 3 cr)
  • AEM 2840 - Python Programming for Data Analysis and Business Modeling (S, 3 cr)
  • AEM 2850 - R for Business Analytics (S, 3 cr; pre-req. AEM 2011) 
  • AEM 3100 - Business Statistics (F, S, 3 cr)
  • AEM 4110 - Introduction to Econometrics (F, 4 cr) 
  • CRP 4080 - Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) (F, 4 cr)
  • ECON 3120 - Applied Econometrics (F, S, Su, 4 cr)
  • ECON 3140 - Econometrics (S, 4 cr)
  • ILRST 2110 - Statistical Methods for Social Sciences II (S, 4 cr)
  • PLSCI 2200 - Introduction to Mapping and Spatial Analysis with GIS (F, 3 cr)
  • STSCI 4060 - Python Programming and Its Applications in Statistics (S, 3 cr)

More information

Students will learn:

  1. How and why markets can fail in allocating scarce resources such as the environment, energy, and natural resources
  2. How economic principles can be used to promote environmental protection and the optimal and sustainable use of natural resources
  3. How policy instruments such as subsidies, taxes and cap-and-trade programs can improve environmental quality by incentivizing economic agents to reduce pollution and develop and adopt clean technologies