In the German-speaking countries, a broad majority of society sees a great need for action in order to avoid dangerous climate change and to counter other global environmental problems more decisively than in the past. However, the more concrete the recommended the economic instruments become to achieve this , the more difficult it is for politicians to win majorities for specific environmental policy measures and to preserve them. Political recommendations in economics are mostly based on the normative principles of efficiency and distributive justice: Does a reform proposal increase economic performance or reduce economic damage - and how does it affect various dimensions of inequality? For politics, however, most important is under which conditions citizens accept an economic reform proposal. The question arises whether the criteria of economics are sufficiently congruent with the evaluation of political measures by citizens and politicians.
The students acquire an understanding of how academic work is relevant for political practice and learn to classify theoretical models and empirical results in terms of their political relevance.
Content
The seminar analyzes the implication of the tension described under “Learning Outcomes” and discusses them with the example of climate policy in particular. Among other things, it is examined which factors influence the societal support for carbon prices. Debates on the regulation of urban traffic and the specific effects of the European emissions trading system are further examples.
Seminar topics include key findings of behavioural and experimental economists on the effectiveness and acceptance of environmental policy instruments. In addition, normative theories on how economic policy recommendations should be made are also included. Considerations from moral psychology on how relevant economic ideas are understood by society is also addressed.
- Trainer/in: Linus Mattauch