Sacrifice, discounting and climate policy: five questions

Larry Karp

No 51612, CUDARE Working Papers from University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics

Abstract: I provide a selective review of discounting and climate policy. After reviewing evidence on the importance of the discount rate in setting policy, I ask whether standard models tend to exaggerate the sacrifices that the current generation needs to undertake in order to internalize climate damages. I then consider whether the risk of catastrophic damage really overwhelms discounting, in the determination of optimal policy. I revisit the question of how we actually think about the distant future.

Keywords: Environmental Economics and Policy; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; Resource/Energy Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29
Date: 2009-06-12
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Sacrifice, discounting and climate policy: five questions (2009)
Working Paper: Sacrifice, Discounting and Climate Policy: Five Questions (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:ucbecw:51612

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.51612

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