There is a larger debate over whether a pure rate of time preference is morally defensible for long-term policy decisions. Stern argued that discounting should only be a function of the probability of the extinction of the human race and the relative wealth of future generations.
The Nobel Prize winning economist Kenneth Arrow wrote an interesting article a few years back on the optimal discount rate to use for assessing long-term climate impacts. He argues for a small but positive pure rate of time preference, but I'm still not sure if I agree with his arguement... Its definitely worth a read. http://www-econ.stanford.edu/faculty/workp/swp97005.pdf --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of global environmental change. Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not gratuitously rude. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
