Speaker: Antony Millner. Thursday 12 May 2016.

Activities

Heterogeneous altruism and long-run discounting

Speaker: Dr. Antony Millner, the London school of economics and political science

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Abstract: The long-run pure rate of social time preference (or utility discount rate) is an enormously important component of cost-benefit analysis of long-lived public policies such as climate change, nuclear waste management, and public infrastructure investments.  For almost a century, economists and philosophers have had disagreements about the appropriate value of this parameter, leading to substantial disagreements on the benefits of long-run policies.  l present a model of intergenerational discounting in which everyone has an unconstrained opinion about how society should discount future generations' wellbeing, but their preferences are non-paternalistic.  I show that non-paternalism causes all agents to agree on the long-run pure rate of time preference, thus ending debate on this crucial parameter, and helping economists achieve consensus on how to value long-run policies.

Date: Thursday 12 May, 2016

Time: 14.00-15.00

Venue: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Linné Hall, Lilla Frescativägen 4A, Stockholm

After the seminar there will be coffee and mingle

Contacts:

Chandra Kiran, the Beijer Institute, Seminar series organiser

Agneta Sundin, Communications officer