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Discounting, Risk and Inequality: A General Approach

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The common practice consists in using a unique value of the discount rate for all public investments. Endorsing a social welfare approach to discounting, we show how different public investments should be discounted depending on: the risk on the return of the investment, the systematic risk on aggregate consumption, the distribution of gains and losses, and inequality. We also study the limit value of the discount rate for very long term investments, and the type of information that is needed about long-term scenarios in order to evaluate investments

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  • Marc Fleurbaey & Stéphane Zuber, 2014. "Discounting, Risk and Inequality: A General Approach," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 14015, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    • Handle: RePEc:mse:cesdoc:14015
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    Cited by:

    1. Loïc Berger & Johannes Emmerling, 2020. "Welfare As Equity Equivalents," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 727-752, September.
    2. Jean-Marc Bonnisseau & Alain Chateauneuf & Jean-Pierre Drugeon, 2023. "On Future Allocations of Scarce Resources without Explicit Discounting Factors," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 23004, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    3. Louis Eeckhoudt & Elisa Pagani & Eugenio Peluso, 2023. "Multidimensional risk aversion: the cardinal sin," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 320(1), pages 15-31, January.
    4. Tangren Feng & Shaowei Ke, 2018. "Social Discounting and Intergenerational Pareto," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(5), pages 1537-1567, September.
    5. Berger, Loïc & Emmerling, Johannes, 2017. "Welfare as Simple(x) Equity Equivalents," MITP: Mitigation, Innovation and Transformation Pathways 254044, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    6. Adler, Matthew D. & Treich, Nicolas, 2017. "Utilitarianism, prioritarianism, and intergenerational equity: A cake eating model," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 94-102.
    7. Fleurbaey, Marc & Zuber, Stéphane, 2015. "Discounting, beyond utilitarianism," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-52.
    8. 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.
    9. Asplund, Disa, 2022. "The welfare-maximizing discount rate in a small open economy," Working Papers 2022:2, Swedish National Road & Transport Research Institute (VTI).
    10. Maya Eden, 2023. "The Cross‐Sectional Implications of the Social Discount Rate," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(6), pages 2065-2088, November.
    11. Tamai, Toshiki, 2023. "The rate of discount on public investments with future bias in an altruistic overlapping generations model," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. Frikk Nesje & Moritz A. Drupp & Mark C. Freeman & Ben Groom, 2022. "Philosophers and Economists Can Agree on the Intergenerational Discount Rate and Climate Policy Paths," CESifo Working Paper Series 9930, CESifo.
    13. 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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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social discounting; risk; inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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