The neglected contributions of Thomas C. Schelling to the economics of climate change

Richard S. J. Tol

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: The rich have emitted the bulk of greenhouse gases. The poor suffer the bulk of the impacts. Climate change is a transfer from poor to rich. Climate policy is a transfer from rich to poor. Why, Schelling asked, do people in the Global North care about the descendants of people they do not care about? And, assuming they do, are there no better ways to help them than emission reduction? A prominent economist, Schelling posed his Paradox and Conjecture in a series of papers in the 1980s and 1990s. The economics profession has largely ignored his work, instead focusing on Nordhaus' simpler carbon-as-an-externality framing.

Date: 2026-07
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