Discounting the future, yet again
Politics, Philosophy and Economics 6 (3):259-284 (2007)
Abstract
discounting the future' is one on which philosophers and economists have divergent professional views. There is a lot of talking at cross-purposes across the disciplinary divide here; but there is a fair bit of confusion (I think) within disciplines as well. My aim here is essentially clarificatory. I draw several distinctions that I see as significant: between inter-temporal and intergenerational questions between price (discount rate) and quantity (inter-temporal and intergenerational allocations) as the ethically relevant magnitude, and between price change and preference change as the primary instrument of change. I show that discounting does not violate the principle of inter-temporal and intergenerational neutrality, but I also cast some doubt on whether making adequate allowance for future generations has really been the problem that economists and philosophers seem to have taken it to be. Key Words: discount rates intergenerational justice future generations `feasibility' analysis.DOI
10.1177/1470594x07081298
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Citations of this work
Climate change, intergenerational equity and the social discount rate.Simon Caney - 2014 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 13 (4):320-342.
Climate Change and the Threat of Disaster: The Moral Case for Taking Out Insurance at Our Grandchildren's Expense.Matthew Rendall - 2011 - Political Studies 59 (4):884-99.
Time-biases and Rationality: The Philosophical Perspectives on Empirical Research about Time Preferences.Tomasz Żuradzki - 2016 - In Jerzy Stelmach, Bartosz Brożek & Łukasz Kurek (eds.), The Emergence of Normative Orders. Copernicus Press. pp. 149-187.
How the Invisible Hand is Supposed to Adjust the Natural Thermostat: A Guide for the Perplexed.Servaas Storm - 2017 - Science and Engineering Ethics 23 (5):1307-1331.
The Social Cost of Carbon from Theory to Trump.J. Paul Kelleher - forthcoming - In Ravi Kanbur & Henry Shue (eds.), Climate Justice: Integrating Economics and Philosophy. Oxford University Press.