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Economists, Value Judgments, and Climate Change: A View From Feminist Economics

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  • Nelson, Julie A.

Abstract

A number of recent discussions about ethical issues in climate change, as engaged in by economists, have focused on the value of the parameter representing the rate of time preference within models of optimal growth. This essay examines many economists’ antipathy to serious discussion of ethical matters, and suggests that the avoidance of questions of intergenerational equity is related to another set of value judgments concerning the quality and objectivity of economic practice. Using insights from feminist philosophy of science and research on high reliability organizations, this essay argues that a more ethically transparent, real-world-oriented, and flexible economic practice would lead to more strongly objective, reliable, and useful knowledge.

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  • Nelson, Julie A., 2007. "Economists, Value Judgments, and Climate Change: A View From Feminist Economics," Working Papers 37280, Tufts University, Global Development and Environment Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:tugdwp:37280
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.37280
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    Cited by:

    1. Anderson, Blake & M'Gonigle, Michael, 2012. "Does ecological economics have a future?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 37-48.
    2. Anna Horodecka, 2015. "The Changing Face of Economics? Ethical Issues in Contemporary Economic Schools as a Consequence of Changes in the Concept of Human Nature," Annales. Ethics in Economic Life, University of Lodz, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, vol. 18(4), pages 55-71, December.
    3. Richard S J Tol, 2018. "The Economic Impacts of Climate Change," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 12(1), pages 4-25.
    4. Goddard, Jessica J. & Kallis, Giorgos & Norgaard, Richard B., 2019. "Keeping multiple antennae up: Coevolutionary foundations for methodological pluralism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Nelson, Julie A., 2009. "Between a rock and a soft place: Ecological and feminist economics in policy debates," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 1-8, November.
    6. Joachim H. Spangenberg, 2018. "Behind the Scenarios: World View, Ideologies, Philosophies. An Analysis of Hidden Determinants and Acceptance Obstacles Illustrated by the ALARM Scenarios," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-22, July.
    7. Koen Vermeylen, 2013. "The Consumption Discount Rate for the Distant Future (if we do not die out)," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-201/VI, Tinbergen Institute.
    8. Biesecker, Adelheid & Hofmeister, Sabine, 2010. "Focus: (Re)productivity: Sustainable relations both between society and nature and between the genders," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 1703-1711, June.
    9. Koen Vermeylen, 2013. "The Methodology of Modern Macroeconomics and the Descriptive Approach to Discounting," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-200/VI, Tinbergen Institute.
    10. Spencer, Phoebe & Perkins, Patricia E. & Erickson, Jon D., 2018. "Re-establishing Justice as a Pillar of Ecological Economics Through Feminist Perspectives," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 191-198.
    11. Baum, Seth D., 2009. "Description, prescription and the choice of discount rates," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 197-205, November.
    12. Julie A. Nelson, 2012. "Is Dismissing the Precautionary Principle the Manly Thing to Do? Gender and the Economics of Climate Change," GDAE Working Papers 12-04, GDAE, Tufts University.
    13. Sigrid Stagl, 2014. "Ecological macroeconomics: reflections on labour markets," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 11(2), pages 171-181, September.

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