ECON 341 · Fall 2026 · SUNY Geneseo
What should we take—and what should we leave?
Learn how economists value, allocate, and govern natural resources when choices made today reshape the possibilities available tomorrow.
Everything in reach
Course materials
Find the available lecture slides, classwork, and homework below. Material links open in a new tab. Weekly pages show how the materials fit together.
Lecture slides
- Lecture 1 Syllabus and Course Outline (opens in a new tab)
- Lecture 2 Microeconomics Review for Natural Resource Economics (opens in a new tab)
- Lecture 3 Summary of Externality Theory (opens in a new tab)
- Lecture 4 Property Rights, Open Access, and Resource Institutions (opens in a new tab)
- Lecture 5 Resource Allocation Over Time (opens in a new tab)
- Lecture 6 Fishery Dynamics and Management (opens in a new tab)
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Classwork
- Classwork 1 Market Diagnostic: Fish Harvest from a Finite Stock (opens in a new tab)
- Classwork 2 Fish Harvest with External Damage (opens in a new tab)
- Classwork 3 Five Fishing Setups: Catch, Dock Prices, and Fish Left for Next Year (opens in a new tab)
- Classwork 4 Designing Rules for a Shared Aquifer (opens in a new tab)
- Classwork 5 Allocating Gravel Across Two Generations (opens in a new tab)
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Homework
- Homework 1 Externalities, Resource Access, and Public Goods (opens in a new tab)
- Homework 2 Petroleum Wealth Across Generations (opens in a new tab)
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Dates to keep in view
Plan around the turning points.
First course meeting
Quiz
Midterm exam
Final exam · 8:30 AM
The course arc
Follow the stock. Read the incentives. Test the rule.
Every unit returns to the same problem: a valuable resource changes through time, people respond to incentives, and institutions shape the outcome.
01Frame · Weeks 1–7Markets, institutions, and timeBuild the microeconomic toolkit, compare resource institutions, and connect discounting, scarcity rent, and fairness to decisions across generations.→ 02Govern · Weeks 8–9Fishery dynamics and managementUse stock-growth and harvest graphs to connect biological dynamics, fishing incentives, and fisheries management, alongside the midterm.→
03Value · Weeks 10–11 · Coming soonValuing NatureMeasure use and non-use values with stated and revealed preferences, then connect those values to benefit-cost decisions.
04Adapt · Weeks 12–16 · Coming soonLand, forests, and resilienceConnect land use and forest management to wildfire risk, insurance, and resilience, then apply the semester’s tools in the project synthesis.