Solving intergenerational sustainability dilemma through imaginary future generations: A qualitative-deliberative approach

Yoshinori Nakagawa, Koji Kotani, Yoshio Kamijo and Tatsuyoshi Saijo ()
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Yoshinori Nakagawa: School of Economics and Management, Kochi University of Technology

No SDES-2016-14, Working Papers from Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management

Abstract: The current generation affects future generations, but not vice versa. This one-way nature of dependence over generations is known to be a main cause for many important problems such as climate change and accumulation of government debts. The occurrence of these problems is characterized by the fact that the current generation tends to choose an action in favor of their benefit without considering future generations, which we call "intergenerational sustainability dilemma (ISD)." This paper designs and implements deliberation experiments of the ISD with a single generation of three people, and examine how the dilemma can be solved. A treatment, "cap of future generations" (capped player), is suggested in which one person in the current generation is asked to be a representative from future without any obligation. We conduct a novel qualitative-deliberative analysis of recorded discussions for 10 minutes of each generation’s decision, contributing to the two points. First, we find the conditions under which intergenerational sustainability is enhanced through deliberations. That is, one member in a group voluntarily plays a role of icebreakers for deliberation and/or a capped player is present in a group. We demonstrate that when an icebreaker and/or a capped player are present during deliberation, the group brings more varieties of ideas and viewpoints for the ISD, leading to higher intergenerational sustainability. Second, this research illustrates how a qualitative-deliberative analysis can be usefully amalgamated with economic experiments as a new methodology to reveal human behaviors and preferences in collective-decision making.

Keywords: Intergenerational sustainability; cap of future generations; qualitative-deliberative approach; economic experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2016-10, Revised 2016-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published in SDE Series, October 2016, pages 1-24

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2016-14

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