Can preferences for catastrophe avoidance reconcile social discounting with intergenerational equity?

نویسندگان

  • Antoine Bommier
  • Stéphane Zuber
چکیده

A social welfare function treating all generations equally is derived from a set of axioms that, contrary to the Utilitarian approach, allows for preferences for Catastrophe Avoidance. Implications for the case where there is a risk of world extinction are studied. We show that substantial time discounting can arise from the planner’s taste for Catastrophe Avoidance, even if the probability of the world ending is infinitesimally small.

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عنوان ژورنال:
  • Social Choice and Welfare

دوره 31  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2008