Journal article
Discounting for public policy: A survey
- Abstract:
- This article surveys the debate over the social discount rate. The focus is on the economics rather than the philosophy literature, but the survey emphasises foundations in ethical theory rather than highly technical details. I begin by locating the standard approach to discounting within the overall landscape of ethical theory. The article then covers the Ramsey equation and its relationship to observed interest rates, arguments for and against a positive rate of pure time preference, the consumption elasticity of utility, and the effect of various sorts of uncertainty on the discount rate. Climate change is discussed as an application.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 463.6KB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1017/S0266267117000062
Authors
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Journal:
- Economics and Philosophy More from this journal
- Volume:
- 33
- Issue:
- 3
- Pages:
- 391-439
- Publication date:
- 2017-05-01
- Acceptance date:
- 2016-12-11
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1474-0028
- ISSN:
-
0266-2671
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
pubs:672498
- UUID:
-
uuid:e456f2b7-428b-41bc-aa46-f9690c5e2565
- Local pid:
-
pubs:672498
- Source identifiers:
-
672498
- Deposit date:
-
2017-01-24
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Cambridge University Press
- Copyright date:
- 2017
- Notes:
- © Cambridge University Press 2016
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record