Sacrifice, discounting and climate policy: five questions

Larry Karp

Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series from Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley

Abstract: I provide a selective review of discounting and climate policy. After reviewing evidence on the importance of the discount rate in setting policy, I ask whether standard models tend to exaggerate the sacrifices that the current generation needs to undertake in order to internalize climate damages. I then consider whether the risk of catastrophic damage really overwhelms discounting, in the determination of optimal policy. I revisit the question of how we actually think about the distant future.

Keywords: climate change; discounting; intergenerational conflict; catastrophic risk; hyperbolic discounting; Life Sciences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-06-12
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Working Paper: Sacrifice, discounting and climate policy: five questions (2009)
Working Paper: Sacrifice, Discounting and Climate Policy: Five Questions (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cdl:agrebk:qt1zq431s8

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