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The term “wicked problems” is not well recognized in the field of applied economics. Normally used to describe situations or scenarios that are difficult to solve using standard modeling methods, these problems are often highly complex and span multiple disciplines. As a result, traditional methods for teaching economists how to problemsolve may not suffice. In this paper, we assess whether or not the case study method is an possible strategy to better equip students to deal with, account for, and solve wicked policy problems in applied economics. We focus on a single, but highly timely and relevant wicked-type policy problem: “Whether or not to change the designation and/or size of the Bear’s Ears National Monument in Utah.” The Bears Ears issue has all the hallmarks of a wicked-type problem. There are many sides to the issue and thus many diverse key stakeholders involved. To address this issue we ask students in an advanced applied economics course to role-play as members of a private a consulting firm hired to and to determine the “socially optimal” size of the Bears Ears National Monument, using economics criteria discussed throughout the semester. Based on their results, students are asked to offer policy recommendations and explain in detail the limitations of their results. We assess student learning outcomes using a pre- and post-survey, a take-home assignment, and an in-class group presentation. To discourage the free-rider problem, we assess individual contributions by having students complete individual evaluations.

Human-engineered capture of CO2 emissions at the point source and subsequent long-term storage of this CO2 underground represent a potential mitigation strategy for global warming. The so-called carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects are technically feasible but have not been well established from an economic efficiency perspective. This chapter uses economic theory to describe the costs, benefits, and economically efficient level of CCS provision. Achieving the economically efficient level of CCS provision requires consideration of both the private and public costs and benefits of CCS and will also likely require some degree of government intervention in the form of economic incentives and/or direct regulation.

This study seeks to analyze competitiveness in electric rates in the U.S. residential sector under a market-based solar sharing network platform and/or a market-based energy trading platform. We argue that under the solar sharing or trading platform there plausibly exist social welfare gains from economics of distributed generation (DG) of renewable energy among grid-connected, photovoltaic (PV) system households. Thus, in this work, we consider a theoretical analysis framework using a model where grid-connected PV-system households are both simultaneously consumers and producers of electricity.