Synopses & Reviews
It is clear that many public policy decisions have very significant long-term ramifications, in addition to their more obvious short-term effects. This is often true with environmental issues, such as climate change, where the costs and benefits of decisions made today will be felt across many generations. In such cases, economists may use discount rates to compare present with future costs and benefits. In this landmark book, a number of the world's foremost economists reconsider the appropriate use of discounting in decision making for the far future.
For years, the definitive treatment of this topic was Discounting for Time and Risk in Energy Policy (Robert Lind, ed.), published by Resources for the Future in 1982. In Discounting and Intergenerational Equity, Lind joins a sterling group of his colleagues to reconsider the purpose, ethical implications, and application of discounting in light of recent research and current policy concerns such as climate change and nuclear waste. Other contributors are Kenneth Arrow, Scott Barrett, David Bradford, William Cline, Maureen Cropper, Shantayanan Devarajan, Partha Dasgupta, Raymond Kopp, David Laibson, Karl-Goeran Maeler, Alan Manne, W. David Montgomery, William Nordhaus, Jerome Rothenberg, Thomas Schelling, V. Kerry Smith, Michael Toman, and Martin Weitzman.
Volume editors John Weyant and Paul Portney have produced a book that looks at discounting from many different perspectives. For example, Paul Portney and Raymond Kopp propose use of "mock referendums", a new paradigm for analyzing policies whose costs and benefits are spread out over hundreds of years. William Cline advocates the application of a social rate of fame preference insocial cost-benefit analysis; he offers an approach he feels will better protect the interests of future generations in long-term issues. And in a significant departure from traditional theory, Partha Dasgupta, Scott Barrett, and Karl-Goeran Maeler model how social rates of discount might be zero or even negative -- a notion that has important ethical as well as economic implications for future generations.
The work produced in Discounting and Intergenerational Equity should go a long way toward refining the economic dimensions of public policy, particularly in environmental matters. As with the policies it discusses, the impact of the book will be felt tomorrow as well as today.
Synopsis
The effects of many environmental policies made today will be felt across a number of generations. Climate change is a good example of an environmental issue with very long-term ramifications. In such cases, analysts often employ discount rates to compare present and future costs and benefits. In this landmark book, a number of the world's foremost economists reconsider the appropriate use of discounting in decision making for the far future.
Paul Portney and John Weyant have assembled a sterling lineup of colleagues to reconsider the purpose, ethical implications, and application of discounting in light of recent research and current policy concerns such as climate change and nuclear waste. Contributors include Kenneth Arrow, Scott Barrett, David Bradford, William Cline, Maureen Cropper, Shantayanan Devarajan, Partha Dasgupta, Raymond Kopp, David Laibson, Robert Lind, Karl-GAran MAler, Alan Manne, W. David Montgomery, William Nordhaus, Jerome Rothenberg, Thomas Schelling, V. Kerry Smith, Michael Toman, and Martin Weitzman.
The editors have produced a book that looks at discounting from many different perspectives. It should go a long way toward refining the economic dimensions of public policy, particularly environmental policy. As with the policies it discusses, the impact of the book will be felt tomorrow as well as today.
Synopsis
In policymaking, economists may use discount rates to compare present with future costs and benefits. In this landmark book, a number of the world's foremost economists reconsider the appropriate use of discounting for the future. This work should go a long way toward refining the economic dimensions of public policy, particularly in environmental matters. As with the policies it discusses, the impact of the book should be felt tomorrow as well as today.
Synopsis
The full effects of decisions made today about many environmental policies -including climate change and nuclear waste- will not be felt for many years. For issues with long-term ramifications, analysts often employ discount rates to compare present and future costs and benefits. This is reasonable, and discounting has become a procedure that raises few objections. But are the methods appropriate for measuring costs and benefits for decisions that will have impacts 20 to 30 years from now the right ones to employ for a future that lies 200 to 300 years in the future? This landmark book argues that methods reasonable for measuring gains and losses for a generation into the future may not be appropriate when applied to a longer span of time. Paul Portney and John Weyant have assembled some of the world's foremost economists to reconsider the purpose, ethical implications, and application of discounting in light of recent research and current policy concerns. These experts note reasons why conventional calculations involved in discounting are undermined when considering costs and benefits in the distant future, including uncertainty about the values and preferences of future generations, and uncertainties about available technologies. Rather than simply disassemble current methodologies, the contributors examine innovations that will make discounting a more compelling tool for policy choices that influence the distant future. They discuss the combination of a high shout-term with a low long-term diescount rate, explore discounting according to more than one set of anticipated preferences for the future, and outline alternatives involving simultaneous consideration of valuation, discounting and political acceptability.