Private Actors, Public Goods: Business and the Environment

3 credits · Undergraduate

Firms have a growing impact on the environment, while the environment—including climate change—increasingly dictates business outcomes. This course uses a microeconomic lens to analyze the tension between private profit and public goods. Core concepts from environmental economics explain when markets fail and how regulation seeks to restore efficiency. We evaluate how private actors—firms, investors, and consumers—can step in when neither markets nor governments are fully effective. Through theory, data, and cases, we examine voluntary initiatives, regulatory impacts on profit, and the competitive advantage of innovation. Guest speakers provide real world perspectives and in-class games and activities make concepts concrete.