Escolhas Institute carries out the course “Economy and Environment: Computable General Equilibrium”, in partnership with Nereus/USP

Escolhas Institute, in partnership with the Regional and Urban Economics Center of the University of São Paulo (NEREUS – USP), started the Economy and Environment – Computable General Equilibrium (EGC) course on Wednesday (12). The goal is to present to stakeholders how the ECG can be used to analyze the relationship between the environment and the market.

With classes taught by economics professor and doctor Joaquim Bento de Souza, from College of Agriculture Luiz de Queiroz, ESALQ – USP, the program is aimed at students and professionals from the public and private sector and third sector agents who wish to know more about how it works and the use of macroeconomic models for policy analysis and environmental issues.

“It is a course that seeks to include these students and researchers in this relatively recent and rather complex research methodology that has been widely used to analyze phenomena such as environmental policies. My expectation is that after these five classes, these people will be able to read and interpret articles that are produced using this methodology”, comments the professor.

In the first lecture given at the School of Economics and Administration of the University of São Paulo (FEA-USP), Bento de Souza introduced the theme of Computable General Equilibrium Models, of which he is one of the pioneers in the study in Brazil, besides discussing its functioning and how it can be applied. According to him, the EGC should be used to evaluate large sectors of the economy, which present a massive amount of data. “If I am evaluating the increased demand for a small sector of the economy, I do not need a computable model. Now if I am talking about oil or Bolsa Família transfer of income, for example, I am going to need EGC”, he clarifies.

According to Aline Soterroni, a researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and one of the participants of the course, her interest in the subject was the desire to connect partial equilibrium models that analyze impacts in specific areas of the economy, with general equilibrium models, which seek to explain effects of the same change on an entire economy. “There is a doctoral research that Professor Joaquim directed, that seeks to know the cost of the Forest Code. With the use of general equilibrium we could know the impact of the Forest Code on household income, agriculture and the environment”, says the researcher.

The economics student at PUC-SP and Itaú trainee, Jéssica Ferreira, said that her interest in the course came from the desire to gather instruments to determine the bank’s social and environmental impacts. “We have a project that is related to the environment that dialogues directly with what is being discussed in the course. For sure it will add a lot of value for us”, she says.

The course is one of the actions of the Escolhas Economics and Environment Chair held with Itaú-Unibanco sponsorship.