Hans G. Ehrbar's Home Page

Hans G. Ehrbar
Economics Department, University of Utah
1645 Campus Center Dr., Rm 308
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9300, USA
Tel: +1 801 581 7797
Economics office: +1 801 581 7481
Fax: +1 801 585 5649
Email regarding classes: Hans.Ehrbar@m.cc.utah.edu
Other Email: ehrbar@economics.utah.edu
Hans 1996

The Economics of a Sick Society

Please read and respond to Hans's Statement about the War.


Hans's main web publications:

Hans's teaching schedule:

Spring Semester 2009

Econ 5260 and Econ 6260
Catalog description: The class takes a critical look at energy policies in order to find out why renewable energies have not yet take off in the USA, despite urgent need for them. It considers both sides in the debate between renewable portfolio standards and feed-in tariffs, and between carbon trading and carbon taxes. All forms of renewable energy will be discussed one by one, with special consideration of their availability in Utah: cost, environmental impact, other considerations, and policies appropriate with respect to that type of energy.
Additional Detail: Energy policy will be discussed in relation to global warming, therefore we will begin with the broad view: how big is the problem of global warming, what are the contributions of the different policies to the problem and/or its solution. We will take a critical look at cost-benefit analysis. We will look at the details of the Western Climate Initiative, and things like net metering. This class is anchored in current issues and probes the theoretical background necessary to solve these issues. Since this is a huge subject, a selective approach must be taken: Hans tries to indicate what is necessary to take a scientific approach.

Summer Semester 2009

Econ 3960
Communicating the Climate Emergency. Class Participants will make home visitsb to ordinary citizens in the area and engage in friendly conversations about climate change. Class meets Mondays 6-9 pm. More details soon.

Fall Semester 2009

Econ 5080 and Econ 6080
This 3-credit class consists of a close reading of Marx's Capital.  It fully utilizes e-mail and the world wide web.  A lecture will be given one hour a week on the main University campus.  The day section 001 meets Friday 10:45-11:35 am in OSH 107, and the evening section 002 Tuesday 6-6:50 pm in in OSH 113.  But for those class participants who are caught up with their internet assignments these lectures are optional. Class participants communicate with the instructor and each other mainly per e-mail.  Class participants must come to campus only for the third class session (these are the dates for 2008, 2009 dates are similar: evening class Tuesday Sep 9, day class Friday Sep. 12, 2008), and for the two in-class exams.  The exam dates are September 30 and November 25 for the evening section, and October 3 and November 21 for the day section.

The Class Materials include a detailed commentary to Marx's Capital and transcripts of the email discussions of previous classes.  This class is no longer registered as a telecourse, but as a technology-enchanced course.  This means, you can enroll for this class as for any other class, it is not necessary to go through U-online and you do not have to pay the extra fee for on-line classes.

Fall Semester 2010

Hans is teaching two sections of Econ 5080/6080, see the class home page.

Research

Here is some of Hans's research, published or unpublished:

Revised Geometry of Mean-Variance Efficient Portfolios
1993, published in Metroeconomica
Relative Prices in the Classical Theory: Facts and Figures
1996, together with Christian Bidard
Marxism and Critical Realism
1998, Seminar Presentation at University of Utah
Graph Notation for Arrays
2000, presented at the Array Programming Languages Conference in Berlin, July 24-27, 2000.
Irrealist Lines of Defense in Econometrics
2000, presented at the International Association for Critical Realism Conference in Lancaster, August 18-20, 2000.
Critical Realist Arguments in Marx's Capital
a chapter in the book Critical Realism and Marxism, Routledge 2001.
Capitalism Today and the Labor Theory of Value
presented at the Delta Marsh Conference of the University of Manitoba, November 17, 2001, and at the ERC-METU international conference in Economics on September 14, 2002.

Dissertations

Other Links

Theory of Socialism and Socialist Elements under Capitalism

Other Links

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