A Biological Theory of Social Discounting
نویسندگان
چکیده
We consider a growth model in which intergenerational transfers are made via stocks of private and public capital. Private capital is the outcome of individuals’private savings while decisions regarding public capital are made collectively. We hypothesize that private saving choices evolve through individual selection while public saving decisions are the result of group selection. The main result of the paper is that the equilibrium return to private capital is much more than twice as larger as the return to public capital if the two types of capital are complements. In other words, social choices involving intertemporal trade-offs exhibit much more patience than individual choices do.
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