Concerns about intergenerational equity have led to an influential practice of setting social
utility discount rates based on ethical considerations rather than to match household …

We study optimal fiscal policy to address climate change and inequality. We theoretically
characterize optimal carbon and income taxes and quantify them for the US economy with a …

An analytically tractable climate-economy model is extended to allow for a planner that
discounts the future differently than private agents. This is relevant to the climate-policy …

This paper provides a critical review of the literature on choosing social discount rates
(SDRs) for public cost-benefit analysis. We discuss two dominant approaches, the first …

The estimated value to society from climate change mitigation is highly sensitive to the long-
term social discount rate. Governmental discounting guidance has almost exclusively been …

Assessment of climate change policies requires aggregation of costs and benefits over time
and across generations, a process ordinarily done through discounting. Choosing the …

The long-run social discount rate has an enormous effect on the value of climate mitigation,
infrastructure projects, and other long-term public policies. Its value is however highly …

Disagreements about the value of the utility discount rate—the rate at which our concern for
the welfare of future people declines with their distance from us in time—are at the heart of …

Over the past 15 years, government guidelines on social discounting for benefit–cost
analysis have been updated in many different countries. These updates appear to reflect the …

This paper examines the interplay between discounting and the distribution of welfare
between generations in formulating climate change response strategies. The analysis …