Risk Aversion, Intergenerational Equity and Climate Change

The paper investigates a climate-economy model with an iso-elastic welfare function in which one parameter γ measures relative risk-aversion and a distinct parameter ρ measures resistance to intertemporal substitution. We show both theoretically and numerically that climate policy responds differently to variations in the two parameters. In particular, we show that higher γ but lower ρ leads to increase emissions control. We also argue that climate-economy models based on intertemporal expected utility maximization, i.e. models where γ = ρ, may misinterpret the sensitivity of the climate policy to risk-aversion.