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Economics & Earth Systems · ECON/IDS/POLS-2420

Ecological Economics

The physics of economics

Not merely the study of economics, but a broad, non-technical, transdisciplinary study of the relationship between humans and the biosphere.

Fall 2026Tues & Thurs, 2:30–3:45Room F24424 sessionsWithdraw by Nov 17
Syllabus (PDF) Course Text (PDF) Lecture Slides Jump to schedule Presentation Sign-up Jump to reading list
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Schedule

Chapters are read at home, with a keyword quiz to open the session. The journal articles and book excerpts get ten timed minutes of class time — those are marked “read in class” below. Tick readings off as you go.

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Week 1What Is Economics?Sept 10+
Thurs Sept 10TextbookCh. 1, Introduction: what is economics?
In class
How this course runs
Chapters are read at home, with a short keyword quiz written by hand to open the session. The journal articles and book excerpts are harder going, so those get ten timed minutes of class time instead: you open them from this page on your own device and a timer runs. Look for the timed readings in the schedule below — those are the sessions you can arrive at cold.
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Week 2Physical Laws and PolicySept 15 & 17+
Tues Sept 15Text + articleCh. 2, Physical laws and the “fundamental vision”
Assignment opens
Throughput audit
Starting today, you track your own material and energy throughput for the next seven days — what enters your life and what leaves it. Full instructions, including what to track and how to record it, are in the Assignments section below. Worth 10 per cent.
Thurs Sept 17TextbookCh. 3, Economics as policy?
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Week 3Systems and ResourcesSept 22 & 24+
Tues Sept 22TextbookSystems theory
Thurs Sept 24TextbookCh. 4, Resource economics
Activity
Pooling the audit
We put the whole class’s results together and set them beside national material flow data from the instructor’s own research. The interesting question is not who consumed most, but which flows nobody managed to see at all.
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Week 4Scarcity and the MarketSept 29 & Oct 1+
Tues Sept 29SupplementaryThe illusion of scarcity
Thurs Oct 1TextbookCh. 8, The market
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Week 5Supply, Demand, FailureOct 6 & 8+
Tues Oct 6TextbookCh. 9, Supply and demand
Thurs Oct 8TextbookCh. 10, Market failures
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Week 6Abiotic and Biotic ResourcesOct 13 & 15+
Tues Oct 13TextbookCh. 11, Failures and abiotic resources
Thurs Oct 15TextbookCh. 12, Failures and biotic resources
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Week 7Behaviour and WelfareOct 20 & 22+
Tues Oct 20SupplementaryBehavioural economics
Optional
Ch. 13, Human Behavior and Economics
New in the 2nd edition — Daly and Farley’s own treatment of the same ground as the Kahneman excerpt (consumption and well-being, rationality, self-interest, experimental evidence). Not required and not quizzed; read it if the Kahneman excerpt leaves you wanting the textbook’s version.
Thurs Oct 22Text + articleCh. 14, GDP vs. welfare
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Week 8Money and DistributionOct 27 & 29+
Tues Oct 27TextbookCh. 15, Money
Thurs Oct 29Text + articleCh. 16, Distribution
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Week 9Real vs. Monetary, and Policy DesignNov 3 & 5+
Tues Nov 3TextbookCh. 17, The real vs. the monetary economy
Thurs Nov 5TextbookCh. 21, Policy design
Due today
Learning statements — first collection
Bring the notebook you have been writing your learning statements in. I collect them at the end of this session and return them after Reading Week. I am checking that entries are present, dated, and in sequence, not grading the writing.
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Reading WeekNo classesNov 9–13+
Fall Reading Week. CMU is closed Nov 11 for Remembrance Day. Withdrawal deadline is Tuesday Nov 17.
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Week 10Proposals and GlobalizationNov 17 & 19+
Tues Nov 17WorkshopPolicy proposal workshop
Workshop
Policy proposal workshop
Bring a research question, however rough, and leave with a sharper one. You will work it through with classmates rather than with the instructor, which tends to surface the assumption you did not notice you were making. Note that this is also the withdrawal deadline.
Thurs Nov 19TextbookCh. 18–19, Internationalization vs. globalization
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Week 11Financial Globalization and ScaleNov 24 & 26+
Tues Nov 24TextbookCh. 20, Financial Globalization
Substantially rewritten in the 2nd edition — new sections on financial liberalization, the 2008 crisis, and ecological-economic explanations of financial crisis. Reread even if you know the 1st edition chapter.
Activity
Peer review
Draft policy proposals are reviewed by classmates using the web form on the course site. You are looking for the dissenting viewpoint the writer left out, not for typographical errors.
Thurs Nov 26Text + articleCh. 22, Managing scale
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Week 12Allocation and ConclusionDec 1 & 3+
Tues Dec 1Text + articleCh. 24, Allocation and policy examples
Activity
Country mapping
Each of you takes a country and plots its social shortfall against its ecological overshoot using the public data from Fanning and O’Neill. We then put the whole class on one chart. The claim that no country currently achieves both becomes something you built rather than something you read.
Thurs Dec 3AssessmentLooking Ahead · final test
Assessment
Final test
A short assessment written in class through Populi during this session, with results returned the same day. There is no scheduled final examination for this course.
Due today
Learning statements — final collection
Second and last collection, covering the sessions since Reading Week.
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Week 13Final PresentationsDec 8+
Tues Dec 8AssessmentFinal presentations
Assessment
Final presentations
Present your policy findings to the class, then take about two minutes of unscripted questions from the room and the instructor. Marked on style (5), clarity (5), substance (10), and engagement (5); the engagement mark covers how you handle questions on your own work as well as your contributions to everyone else’s.

Reading List

Every reading assigned this term, in one place, linked to its original source wherever one exists. See the schedule above for when each is due.

Daly, H. E., & Farley, J. (2010). Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications (2nd ed.). Island Press.Required text, ch. 1–24 plus the closing “Looking Ahead” — in copyright, not linked here. Ch. 13 (Human Behavior and Economics, Oct 20) is optional.
Eisenstein, C. (2011). Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition, ch. 2.Free online, with the author’s blessing
Fanning, A. L., O’Neill, D. W., Hickel, J., & Roux, N. (2022). “The social shortfall and ecological overshoot of nations.” Nature Sustainability, 5, 26–36.Author-accepted manuscript — the publisher page is paywalled
Haberl, H., Wiedenhofer, D., Virág, D., et al. (2020). “A systematic review of the evidence on decoupling of GDP, resource use and GHG emissions, part II: synthesizing the insights.” Environmental Research Letters, 15, 065003.Open access, CC BY
Hickel, J., & Kallis, G. (2020). “Is Green Growth Possible?” New Political Economy, 25(4), 469–486.Author repository copy — the publisher page sits behind access controls
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow, part 1 (excerpt).In copyright — shared via Proton Drive, not a public file
Richardson, K., Steffen, W., Lucht, W., et al. (2023). “Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries.” Science Advances, 9(37), eadh2458.Open access, CC BY
Wiedmann, T., Lenzen, M., Keyßer, L. T., & Steinberger, J. K. (2020). “Scientists’ warning on affluence.” Nature Communications, 11, 3107.Open access, CC BY

Submit

Everything that has to be handed in electronically lives here. Learning statements are handwritten and stay in your notebook.

Throughput audit — daily logEvery day, days 1–7+

Log today’s entry for the throughput audit. See the Assignments section above for what to track and how.

Chapter presentation peer reviewAfter each presentation+

Your recommended grade and comments for the group that just presented. Grades are crowdsourced and recommended to the instructor, who reserves the right to adjust up or down.

Assignments

Weights and full descriptions are in the syllabus.

10%Class participation+
Graded on quality and consistency. Regular contributions that make room for others score higher than frequent contributions that do not. Grades posted at midterm and at the end of term.
15%Chapter presentations+
One group per assigned reading prepares a point-form synopsis of the main argument and presents it to catalyze discussion. Nothing is written up afterwards. Peer-reviewed using the form on this page, with grades recommended to the instructor.
20%Reading quizzes+
Keyword definitions, written at the beginning of class on paper with devices away. Cannot be made up. Your two lowest scores are dropped automatically, no explanation required.
10%Throughput audit+
Method
  • Track daily for 7 consecutive days, starting when this opens
  • Use whatever you’ll actually keep up: notebook, phone notes app, or spreadsheet
  • Estimates are fine — this is a noticing exercise, not a lab
Track what comes in
  • Food & drink
  • Water (showers, cooking, laundry)
  • Electricity & gas
  • Fuel (driving, transit, flights)
  • Purchases, including packaging
Track what goes out
  • Garbage
  • Recycling
  • Compost
  • Anything discarded or given away
Write-up — 2 pages, due the following week
  • What you found
  • What you couldn’t capture: embedded/imported energy, overseas manufacturing, digital services, financial flows — this is the more interesting half
  • Too personal to itemize? Describe it at the category level, don’t skip it
Grading
  • Seriousness of the tracking and honesty of the reflection — not your numbers
20%Policy proposal+
1500+ words analyzing a policy idea from one of the main texts. Provide context, outline its key features, and include dissenting viewpoints. Research question workshop on November 17.
15%Final presentations+
Present your policy findings on December 8, then take about two minutes of unscripted questions. Marked on style, clarity, substance, and engagement.
10%Final test+
December 3, in class through Populi. There is no scheduled final examination for this course.