Combining Rights and Welfarism: a new approach to intertemporal evaluation of social alternatives

Martinet, Vincent; Long, Ngo

Combining Rights and Welfarism: a new approach to intertemporal evaluation of social alternatives

No 2012-14, EconomiX Working Papers from University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX

Abstract: We propose a new criterion which reflects both the concern for welfare (utility) and the concern for rights in the evaluation of economic development paths. The concern for rights is captured by a pre-ordering over combinations of thresholds (floors or ceilings on various quantitative indicators) that serve as constraints on actions and on levels of state variables. These thresholds are interpreted as minimal rights to be guaranteed to all generations. They are endogenously chosen within the set of all feasible thresholds, accounting for the "cost in terms of welfare" of achieving these rights. We apply the criterion to several examples, including the standard Dasgupta-Heal-Solow model of resource extraction and capital accumulation. We show that if the weight given to rights in the criterion is sufficiently high, the optimal solution may be on the threshold possibility frontier. The development path is then "driven" by the rights. In particular, if a minimal consumption is considered as a right, constant consumption can be optimal even with a positive utility discount rate. The shadow prices of thresholds play an important role in the determination of the rate of discount to be applied to social investment projects.

Keywords: Rights; Intergenerational Equity; Welfare; Sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 H43 Q01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ppm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://economix.fr/pdf/dt/2012/WP_EcoX_2012-14.pdf (application/pdf)

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

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:drm:wpaper:2012-14

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in EconomiX Working Papers from University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Valerie Mignon ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).