Additive damages, fat-tailed climate dynamics, and uncertain discounting

Martin Weitzman

Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), 2009, vol. 3, No 2009-39, 29 pages

Abstract: This paper in applied theory argues that there is a loose chain of reasoning connecting the following three basic links in the economics of climate change: 1) additive disutility damages may be appropriate for analyzing some impacts of global warming; 2) an uncertain feedback-forcing coefficient, which might be near one with infinitesimal probability, can cause the distribution of the future time trajectory of global temperatures to have fat tails and a high variance; 3) when high-variance additive damages are discounted at an uncertain rate of pure time preference, which might be near zero with infinitesimal probability, it can make expected present discounted disutility very large. Some possible implications for welfare analysis and climate-change policy are briefly noted.

Keywords: Climate change; fat tails (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (43)

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http://dx.doi.org/10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2009-39
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/28955/1/614386799.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Chapter: Additive Damages, Fat-Tailed Climate Dynamics, and Uncertain Discounting (2011)
Working Paper: Additive Damages, Fat-Tailed Climate Dynamics, and Uncertain Discounting (2009)
Working Paper: Additive Damages, Fat-Tailed Climate Dynamics, and Uncertain Discounting (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:ifweej:200939

DOI: 10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2009-39

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