2021 Faculty Courses School of Engineering Department of Industrial Engineering and Economics Graduate major in Industrial Engineering and Economics

Frontier of Environmental Economics and Policy Studies

Academic unit or major: Graduate major in Industrial Engineering and Economics
Instructor(s): Toshihiko Masui
Class Format: Lecture
Media-enhanced courses: -
Day of week/Period (Classrooms): 1-2 Wed
Class: -
Course Code: IEE.B531
Number of credits: 200
Course offered: 2021
Offered quarter: 3-4Q
Syllabus updated: Jul 10, 2025
Language: Japanese

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

Explain the mechanism of climate change and mitigation & adaptation policies, and introduce the countermeasures in Japan.
And assess the mitigation policies toward a low carbon society by using the general equilibrium model, and discuss the necessary countermeasures to avoid the climate change.

Course description and aims

Understand the roles of science and policy to solve the climate change issue. Then understand how the science can contribute to the environmental policies.
Through the programming of computable general equilibrium model, try to quantify the environmental policies, and assess the appropriate policies.

Keywords

Environmental policy, climate change, mitigation and adaptation, policy and science, general equilibrium model

Competencies

Specialist skills
Intercultural skills
Communication skills
Critical thinking skills
Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

Each class will be explained by using the related literatures. And through the presentation by students, the students will deepen the debate on the solution by environmental policies.

Course schedule/Objectives

	Course schedule	Objectives
Class 1	Science and policy on climate change	Understand the scientific knowledge on climate change
Class 2	Climate mitigation policy	Understand the climate mitigation policy
Class 3	History of mitigation policy in Japan	Understand the history of mitigation policy in Japan
Class 4	How to bridging gap between policy making and model	Understand the roles of model for climate mitigation policies and actions
Class 5	General equilibrium model (1) Data	Develop the dataset necessary to computable general equilibrium model
Class 6	General equilibrium model (2) Behaviors of producer and consumer	Formulate the behaviors of producer and consumer
Class 7	General equilibrium model (3) Theory	Solve computable general equilibrium model
Class 8	General equilibrium model (4) Simple model programming	Simulate computable general equilibrium model under the prepared dataset
Class 9	General equilibrium model (5) Model extension 1	Understand the program of extended CGE model for energy and climate change
Class 10	General equilibrium model (6) Assessment of mitigation actions	Assess the climate change mitigation policy using computable general equilibrium model
Class 11	General equilibrium model (5) Model extension 2	Extend the model from closed economy to open economy and from static model to dynamic model
Class 12	Assessment of climate change policies (presentation)	Make a presentation on the simulation results and make the problems clear
Class 13	Sustainable development	Understand the definition of sustainable development
Class 14	Toward the decarbonized society (presentation)	Explore the countermeasures to achieve the decarbonized society, and clarify the further problems

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

Since the topics cover very broad issues, the related literatures will be provided each time.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

The related literatures will be provided each time.

Evaluation methods and criteria

Periodical small report for each class (30%), presentation (40%) and final report (30%)

Related courses

IEE.B530 ： Modeling of Global Environment and Economic Growth

Prerequisites

Students are desired to understand the basic knowledge on microeconomics and microeconomics.

Contact information (e-mail and phone) Notice : Please replace from ”[at]” to ”@”(half-width character).

Prof. Toshihiko Masui (masui[at]nies.go.jp)

Office hours

Before and after the class, professor will stay in his/her office. Contact using email, because usually professor works at National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba.