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Discounting and intragenerational equity

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  • Emmerling, Johannes

Abstract

We study the social discount rate, taking into account inequality within generations, that is, across countries or individuals. We show that if inequality decreases over time, the social discount rate should be lower than the one obtained by the standard Ramsey rule under certain but reasonable conditions. Applied to the global discount rate and due to the projected convergence across countries, this implies that the inequality adjusted discount rate should be about twice as high as the standard Ramsey rule predicts. For individual countries on the other hand, where inequality tends to increase over time, the effect goes in the other direction. For the United States for instance, this inequality effect leads to a reduction of the social discount rate by about 0.5 to 1 percentage points. We also present an analytical formula for the social discount rate allowing us to disentangle inequality, risk, and intertemporal fluctuation aversion.

Suggested Citation

  • Emmerling, Johannes, 2018. "Discounting and intragenerational equity," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 19-36, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:endeec:v:23:y:2018:i:01:p:19-36_00
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Rick Van der Ploeg & Bas Jacobs, 2010. "Precautionary Climate Change Policies And Optimal Redistribution," OxCarre Working Papers 049, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    2. Rintaro Yamaguchi, 2019. "Intergenerational Discounting with Intragenerational Inequality in Consumption and the Environment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(4), pages 957-972, August.
    3. Freeman, Mark C. & Groom, Ben, 2016. "How certain are we about the certainty-equivalent long term social discount rate?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 152-168.
    4. Moritz A. Drupp & Ulrike Kornek & Jasper N. Meya & Lutz Sager, 2021. "Inequality and the Environment: The Economics of a Two-Headed Hydra," CESifo Working Paper Series 9447, CESifo.
    5. van der Ploeg, Frederick & Emmerling, Johannes & Groom, Ben, 2022. "The Social Cost of Carbon with Intragenerational Inequality under Economic Uncertainty," RFF Working Paper Series 22-08, Resources for the Future.
    6. Frederick van der Ploeg & Johannes Emmerling & Ben Groom, 2023. "The Social Cost of Carbon with Intragenerational Inequality and Economic Uncertainty," Discussion Papers 2301, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
    7. Christian P. Fries & Lennart Quante, 2023. "Intergenerational Equitable Climate Change Mitigation: Negative Effects of Stochastic Interest Rates; Positive Effects of Financing," Papers 2312.07614, arXiv.org, revised May 2024.
    8. Emmerling, Johannes & Groom, Ben & Wettingfeld, Tanja, 2017. "Discounting and the representative median agent," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 78-81.
    9. Drupp, Moritz A. & Meya, Jasper N. & Baumgärtner, Stefan & Quaas, Martin F., 2017. "Economic inequality and the value of nature," Economics Working Papers 2017-08, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.
    10. Yamaguchi, Rintaro & Shah, Payal, 2020. "Spatial discounting of ecosystem services," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    11. Jasper N. Meya & Stefan Baumgärtner & Moritz A. Drupp & Martin F. Quaas, 2020. "Inequality and the Value of Public Natural Capital," CESifo Working Paper Series 8752, CESifo.

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