The Library
Should we discount the welfare of future generations? : Ramsey and Suppes versus Koopmans and Arrow
Tools
Chichilnisky, Graciela, Hammond, Peter J. and Stern, Nicholas (2018) Should we discount the welfare of future generations? : Ramsey and Suppes versus Koopmans and Arrow. Working Paper. Coventry: University of Warwick. Department of Economics. Warwick economics research papers series (WERPS) (1174). (Unpublished)
|
PDF
WRAP-should-we-discount-welfare-future-generations-Hammond-2018.pdf - Other - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (1105Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/w...
Abstract
Ramsey famously pronounced that discounting “future enjoyments” would be ethically indefensible. Suppes enunciated an equity criterion implying that all individuals’ welfare should be treated equally. By contrast, Arrow (1999a, b) accepted, perhaps rather reluctantly, the logical force of Koopmans’ argument that no satisfactory preference ordering on a sufficiently unrestricted domain of infinite utility streams satisfies equal treatment. In this paper, we first derive an equitable utilitarian objective based on a version of the Vickrey–Harsanyi original position, extended to allow a variable and uncertain population with no finite bound. Following the work of Chichilnisky and others on sustainability, slightly weakening the conditions of Koopmans and co-authors allows intergenerational equity to be satisfied. In fact, assuming that the expected total number of individuals who ever live is finite, and that each individual’s utility is bounded both above and below, there is a coherent equitable objective based on expected total utility. Moreover, it implies the “extinction discounting rule” advocated by, inter alia, the Stern Review on climate change.
Item Type: | Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory |
||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Ramsey, Frank Plumpton, 1903-1930, Suppes, Patrick, 1922-2014, Koopmans, Tjalling C. (Tjalling Charles), 1910-1985, Arrow, Kenneth J. (Kenneth Joseph), 1921-2017, Utilitarianism, Consequentialism (Ethics), Intergenerational relations -- Economic aspects, Welfare economics | ||||
Series Name: | Warwick economics research papers series (WERPS) | ||||
Publisher: | University of Warwick. Department of Economics | ||||
Place of Publication: | Coventry | ||||
ISSN: | 0083-7350 | ||||
Official Date: | August 2018 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Number: | 1174 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 68 | ||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Status: | Not Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||
Description: | This paper also appears as CRETA discussion paper 43 |
||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 12 March 2018 | ||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 12 March 2018 |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year