Descriptive versus Prescriptive Discounting in Climate Change Policy Analysis

Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy 15:957-977 (2017)
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Abstract

This paper distinguishes between five different approaches to social discount rates in climate change economics, criticizes two of these, and explains how the other three are to some degree mutually compatible. It aims to shed some new light on a longstanding debate in climate change economics between so-called “descriptivists” and “prescriptivists” about social discounting. The ultimate goal is to offer a sketch of the conceptual landscape that makes visible some important facets of the debate that very often go unacknowledged.

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J. Paul Kelleher
University of Wisconsin, Madison

Citations of this work

Environmental Ethics: The State of the Question.Marion Hourdequin - 2021 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 59 (3):270-308.

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References found in this work

Discounting for public policy: A survey.Hilary Greaves - 2017 - Economics and Philosophy 33 (3):391-439.
Pure time preference in intertemporal welfare economics.J. Paul Kelleher - 2017 - Economics and Philosophy 33 (3):441-473.

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