On the Precautionary Principle - The State of the Debate in France at the Turn of the Century

Olivier Godard

Annals of Economics and Statistics, 2026, issue 161, 29-42

Abstract: This paper reconsiders the key features of the debate raised at the turn of the century by the emergence of the precautionary principle as a new standard for hazard management in the field of environmental policies and public health. Debates on the content and legitimacy of this principle have been heated, but did not block its institutional recognition in Europe and in France. Some economists contributed to this debate with the help of economic theory of decision under risk. Among them, three contributions are selected: a model derived from savings theory by Gollier, Jullien, and Treich (2000), which identifies a specific `precautionary effect' attached to scientific uncertainty, the latter being understood as the prospect of improvement of future information; a paper by Henry and Henry (2002) giving a formal expression of the distinction between risk and ambiguity under scientific uncertainty within decision theory and showing that putting aside `ambiguous profiles of risks' and `ambiguous actions' would be suboptimal; a contribution by Godard (2003); Godard, Henry, Lagadec, and Michel-Kerjan (2002) on the perils attached to a specific artefact by which the perceived severity of potential hazards and stringency of preventive action is an increasing function of the earliness of their consideration.

Keywords: Precautionary Principle; Collective Risks; Scientific Progress; Expertise. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D81 I18 K42 Q28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:adr:anecst:y:2026:i:161:p:29-42

DOI: 10.2307/48866003

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