Educator Resources

In “The Global Economics of Water,” students study water from an economic perspective. We link key macro and micro economic concepts to water use and water scarcity across the world. We argue that the global economy can provide answers to local water scarcity when it gives way to more efficient water use and when local solutions can be applied across the globe. Our economic perspective complements the prevailing engineering, environmental science, and hydrological approach to studying water and defines the environment within which firms operate. An alternative way to look at the course is to see it as an opportunity to learn more economics and to study key micro (and macro) economic concepts (comparative advantage, natural monopoly, Coase theorem, open access resource, tragedy of the commons, Green Solow Model, etc.) that will complement the economics you learned in first-year GEM courses and enhance your understanding of how markets function.

 The class has four modules. After the introduction, in which we link climate change to the water cycle, we focus on the global context of water and water use, anchoring our discussion with the case of Singapore. The second module is focused on public policy. We first tackle the open-access nature of water and the public supply of water before studying water markets as an increasingly popular tool to fight water scarcity. In the third module, we specifically put corporations and nongovernmental organizations at the center of the analysis and study how they try to curb water use. The fourth module consists of group projects, focusing on desalination, corporate social responsibility, and investing in water. Click on the PDF icon next to this course title to download the full syllabus which has links to the course materials.

Giving Voice To Values

Giving Voice To Values  (GVV) is an innovative approach to values-driven leadership development in business education and the workplace. Piloted in nearly 1,000 schools, companies and other organizations on all seven continents, the  GVV Curriculum offers practical exercises, cases, modules, scripts and teaching plans for handling a wide range of ethical conflicts in the workplace.