2025
Economic Valuation of the Environment
Name: Economic Valuation of the Environment
Code: GES12430D
6 ECTS
Duration: 15 weeks/162 hours
Scientific Area:
Social Sciences
Teaching languages: Portuguese
Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese
Sustainable Development Goals
Learning Goals
1. Understand the concepts of environmental costs and benefits and the conceptual framework required
for their economic value to be ascertained
2. Become familiar with the diversity of approaches, methods and techniques used to obtain estimates of
the economic cost or benefit in monetary terms
3. To acquire the skills to operationalize and implement the various approaches, methods and techniques
referred to in 2
4. To acquire the skills to use, interpret and communicate estimates of environmental costs and benefits
5. Develop the capacity to design and implement approaches, methods and techniques of economic
valuation in an innovative manner useful in the organizational and sectoral context
6. Encourage critical reflection on the collection and use of estimates of the economic value of
environmental costs and benefits
for their economic value to be ascertained
2. Become familiar with the diversity of approaches, methods and techniques used to obtain estimates of
the economic cost or benefit in monetary terms
3. To acquire the skills to operationalize and implement the various approaches, methods and techniques
referred to in 2
4. To acquire the skills to use, interpret and communicate estimates of environmental costs and benefits
5. Develop the capacity to design and implement approaches, methods and techniques of economic
valuation in an innovative manner useful in the organizational and sectoral context
6. Encourage critical reflection on the collection and use of estimates of the economic value of
environmental costs and benefits
Contents
I. Costs and environmental benefits
Public goods and externalities. Ecosystem services. Goods and services, and environmental damage to
agricultural, agroforestry and forestry ecosystems. Cost-Benefit Analysis. Green accounting.
Environmental responsibility. Markets for environmental and ecosystem services.
II. Theories and concepts underlying the economic valuation of the environment
The environment and human well-being. Optimal and Pareto improvements. The cost-benefit test, the
producer and consumer surplus, compensating variation and equivalent variation.
III. Valuation methods and techniques
Methods not based on economic theory (e.g. replacement costs, dose-response function, restoration
costs). Methods based on economic theory (hedonic price, cost of travel, contingent valuation, choice
experiments).
IV. Transfer of benefits and meta-analysis
V. Economic environmental evaluation strategies at the organization level
Public goods and externalities. Ecosystem services. Goods and services, and environmental damage to
agricultural, agroforestry and forestry ecosystems. Cost-Benefit Analysis. Green accounting.
Environmental responsibility. Markets for environmental and ecosystem services.
II. Theories and concepts underlying the economic valuation of the environment
The environment and human well-being. Optimal and Pareto improvements. The cost-benefit test, the
producer and consumer surplus, compensating variation and equivalent variation.
III. Valuation methods and techniques
Methods not based on economic theory (e.g. replacement costs, dose-response function, restoration
costs). Methods based on economic theory (hedonic price, cost of travel, contingent valuation, choice
experiments).
IV. Transfer of benefits and meta-analysis
V. Economic environmental evaluation strategies at the organization level
Teaching Methods
Lectures will be complemented by individual practical work and group sessions (in the classroom &/or via
e-learning. Case studies will be presented/discussed either by the teacher responsible or by guest
speakers (from the world of academic research, business, and from other organizations), in project
workshops in which all students will actively participate.
Students will be challenged to design and bring to pilot stage ideas that, once applied, could become
innovative techniques and methods of valuation that take into account the needs of businesses and other
organizations in the sectors of activity under scrutiny. Projects developed by doctoral students, teamed in
pairs, will be one part of the evaluation (60%), the remaining 40% being attributed to the writing and oral
presentation of a case study analysis, based either on data drawn from one or more published papers, or
from reports on deliverables associated with real technical or scientific projects.
e-learning. Case studies will be presented/discussed either by the teacher responsible or by guest
speakers (from the world of academic research, business, and from other organizations), in project
workshops in which all students will actively participate.
Students will be challenged to design and bring to pilot stage ideas that, once applied, could become
innovative techniques and methods of valuation that take into account the needs of businesses and other
organizations in the sectors of activity under scrutiny. Projects developed by doctoral students, teamed in
pairs, will be one part of the evaluation (60%), the remaining 40% being attributed to the writing and oral
presentation of a case study analysis, based either on data drawn from one or more published papers, or
from reports on deliverables associated with real technical or scientific projects.
Certificações
