A note on the consequences of an endogenous discounting depending on the environmental quality

Alain Ayong Le Kama () and Katheline Schubert ()

Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) from HAL

Abstract: Our intention is to study, in the framework of a very simple optimal growth model, the consequences on the optimal paths followed by consumption and the environmental quality of an endogenous discounting. Consumption directly comes from the use of environmental services and so is a direct cause of environmental degradation. The environment is valued both as a source of consumption and as an amenity. For a sustainability concern, we introduce an endogenous discount rate growing with the environmental quality, and compare the optimal growth paths with the ones obtained in the usual case of exogenous and constant discounting. We show that the convergence of the environmental quality towards a steady state occurs only for a very special configuration of the parameters in the exogenous discounting case, while it occurs generically in the endogenous discounting one. This happens for a utility discount rate becoming suficiently high when the environmental quality is high and suficiently low when the environmental quality is poor. In this case then, endogenous discounting with a positive marginal discount rate allows us to avoid the depletion of the environment.

Keywords: Endogenous discounting; Sustainability; Environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-04
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00206326/en/
View list of references

Published, Macroeconomic Dynamics, 2007, 11, 2, 272-289

Downloads: (external link)
http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/20/63/26/PDF/Escend.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: A NOTE ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF AN ENDOGENOUS DISCOUNTING DEPENDING ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (2007)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00206326_v1

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) from HAL
Series data maintained by CCSD ().