IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/pubcho/v55y1987i3p215-226.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The fairness of discounting: A majority rule approach

Author

Listed:
  • S. Brown

Abstract

A model of majority rule is developed in which each of a finite number of generations votes on a redistribution of income between itself and the other generations. In voting, each generation expresses tastes for its own income and for the distribution of income across generations. The model is then used to derive the conditions under which discounting is justified — namely those conditions for which the majority rule exhibits a positive marginal rate of time preference. It is demonstrated that when each generation is wealthier than those preceding it, the parameters representing the taste for income equality must be relatively high for the majority rule to exhibit a positive marginal rate of time preference. Copyright Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1987

Suggested Citation

  • S. Brown, 1987. "The fairness of discounting: A majority rule approach," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 215-226, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:55:y:1987:i:3:p:215-226
    DOI: 10.1007/BF00124867
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF00124867
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/BF00124867?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen A. Marglin, 1963. "The Social Rate of Discount and The Optimal Rate of Investment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 77(1), pages 95-111.
    2. Hamada, Koichi, 1973. "A simple majority rule on the distribution of income," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 243-264, June.
    3. R. M. Solow, 1974. "Intergenerational Equity and Exhaustible Resources," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(5), pages 29-45.
    4. Becker, Robert A., 1982. "Intergenerational equity: The capital-environment trade-off," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 165-185, June.
    5. Gordon Tullock, 1964. "The Social Rate of Discount and the Optimal Rate of Investment: Comment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 78(2), pages 331-336.
    6. Lester C. Thurow, 1971. "The Income Distribution as a Pure Public Good," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 85(2), pages 327-336.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Frederick, Shane, 2006. "Valuing future life and future lives: A framework for understanding discounting," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 667-680, October.
    2. Katrina Forrester, 2018. "The problem of the future in postwar Anglo-American political philosophy," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 55-66, November.
    3. Pezzey, John C.V., 2001. "Optimality, Hartwick’s Rule, and Instruments of Sustainability Policy and Environmental Policy," 2001 Conference (45th), January 23-25, 2001, Adelaide, Australia 125833, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    4. John C. V. Pezzey, 2004. "Sustainability Policy and Environmental Policy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 106(2), pages 339-359, June.
    5. Toman, Michael & Pezzey, John C., 2002. "The Economics of Sustainability: A Review of Journal Articles," RFF Working Paper Series dp-02-03, Resources for the Future.
    6. Preston Greene, 2024. "Social bias, not time bias," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 23(1), pages 100-121, February.
    7. Voinov, Alexey & Farley, Joshua, 2007. "Reconciling sustainability, systems theory and discounting," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 104-113, June.
    8. Valente, Simone, 2011. "Intergenerational externalities, sustainability and welfare—The ambiguous effect of optimal policies on resource depletion," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 995-1014.
    9. Asheim, Geir B., 2008. "Paradoxical consumption behavior when economic activity has environmental effects," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 65(3-4), pages 529-546, March.
    10. Jean Tirole, 1981. "Taux d'actualisation et optimum second," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 32(5), pages 829-869.
    11. William Schulze, 1974. "Social Welfare Functions for the Future," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 18(1), pages 70-81, March.
    12. Pasqual, Joan & Souto, Guadalupe, 2003. "Sustainability in natural resource management," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 47-59, August.
    13. Theodore Panayotou, 2000. "Economic Growth and the Environment," CID Working Papers 56A, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    14. Alassane DRABO, 2010. "Interrelationships between Health, Environment Quality and Economic Activity: What Consequences for Economic Convergence," Working Papers 201005, CERDI.
    15. Scott, Antony, 1999. "Trust law, sustainability, and responsible action," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 139-154, October.
    16. Carbonell-Nicolau, Oriol & Klor, Esteban F., 2003. "Representative democracy and marginal rate progressive income taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(5-6), pages 1137-1164, May.
    17. Davidson, Marc D., 2014. "Zero discounting can compensate future generations for climate damage," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 40-47.
    18. Karbowski, Adam, 2016. "Discussion on the Social Rate of Discount: from Sen to Behavioural Economics," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(2), pages 46-60.
    19. John C. V. Pezzey, 2002. "A One-sided Sustainability Test With Multiple Consumption Goods," Working Papers in Ecological Economics 0201, Australian National University, Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Ecological Economics Program.
    20. Luciano PILOTTI, 2011. "Urban ecology and cultural heritage values for a new emergent European city," Departmental Working Papers 2011-20, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:55:y:1987:i:3:p:215-226. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.