Formalization and Applications of the Precuationary Principle

Claude Henry and Marc Henry

No 2002009, LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES from Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)

Abstract: A formalization of the Precuationary Principle is given here: We formalize scientific knowledge on the likelihood of events in the state space and the concepts of scientifically unambiguous events and acts. We gie a definition of non-precautionary social planner as a Savage Expected Utility maximizer who evaluates acts relativ to a baseline, called “business as usual”, and who disregards scientifically ambguous acts, and we show that, for a wide class of preferences for the representative agent, non-r-precautionary decision making is sub-optimal. A discussion of this formalization is given in the context of national and international debates on Precaution, in the fields of Climate Change, of WTO arbitrages, and of the safety regulations of chemical products.

Keywords: Ambiguity; objectively unambiguous; precaution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D81 K32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19
Date: 2002-02-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-mic
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Working Paper: Formalization and applications of the Precautionary Principle (2002)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctl:louvir:2002009

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