Publications
The endowment effect and environmental discounting
There is a considerable body of evidence from behavioural economics and contingent valuation showing that our preferences exhibit both reference dependence and loss aversion, a.k.a. the endowment effect. In this … read more »
Weighing the costs and benefits of climate change to our children
Our efforts to put the brakes on climate change or adapt to a warming climate present a fundamental tradeoff between costs borne today and benefits that accrue to the … read more »
The climate beta
This paper examines the question of whether fighting climate change has the additional advantage of reducing the aggregate risk borne by future generations. This raises the question of the ‘climate beta’, i.e. the elasticity of climate damages with respect to a change in aggregate consumption. read more »
Appropriate time discounting in the public sector
A substantial literature of social discounting has now extended over more than 50 years, but practical approaches in developed economies and international bodies continue to vary widely. This is sometimes … read more »
Heterogeneous intergenerational altruism
Agents exhibit pure intergenerational altruism if they care not just about the consumption utility experienced by future generations, but about their total wellbeing. If all generations are altruistic, each generation’s … read more »
Collective intertemporal choice: time consistency vs. time invariance
We study collective choice when individuals have heterogeneous discounted utilitarian preferences. Two attractive properties of intertemporal preferences are indistinguishable for individuals, but have dramatically different implications for collective choice. Time … read more »
Discounting disentangled
This working paper finds that current policy guidance concerning social discounting and the evaluation of long-term public projects needs to be updated. read more »
Resolving intertemporal conflicts: Economics vs. Politics
Intertemporal conflicts occur when a group of agents with heterogeneous time preferences must make a collective decision about how to manage a common asset. How should this be done? We … read more »
Policy experimentation, political competition, and heterogeneous beliefs
We model how heterogeneous beliefs about the uncertain consequences of long-run policy choices affect the incentives of incumbent governments. read more »
Ethics, equity and the economics of climate change. Paper 1: science and philosophy
This paper examines a broad range of ethical perspectives and principles relevant to the analysis of issues raised by the science of climate change and explores their implications. A second and companion … read more »
