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Intergenerational Equity and the Forest Management Problem

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Author Info
Mitra, Tapan (Cornell U)
Abstract

The paper re-examines the foundations of representation of intertemporal preferences that satisfy intergenerational equity, and provides an axiomatic characterization of those social welfare relations, which are representable by the utilitarian ordering, in ranking consumption sequences which are eventually identical. A maximal point of this ordering is characterized in a standard model of forest management. Maximal paths are shown to converge over time to the forest with the maximum sustained yield, thereby providing a theoretical basis for the tradition in forest management, which has emphasized the goal of maximum sustained yield. Further, it is seen that a maximal point coincides with the optimal point according to the well-known overtaking criterion. This result indicates that the more restrictive overtaking criterion is inessential for a study of forest management under intergenerational equity, and provides a more satisfactory basis for the standard forestry model.

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Paper provided by Cornell University, Center for Analytic Economics in its series Working Papers with number 04-17.

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Date of creation: Dec 2004
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Handle: RePEc:ecl:corcae:04-17

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods and Programming - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General
D90 - Microeconomics - - Intertemporal Choice and Growth - - - General
O41 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
Q23 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Forestry

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  1. Basu, Kaushik & Mitra, Tapan, 2003. "Utilitarianism for Infinite Utility Streams: A New Welfare Criterion and Its Axiomatic Characterization," Working Papers 03-05, Cornell University, Center for Analytic Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Svensson, Lars-Gunnar, 1980. "Equity among Generations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(5), pages 1251-56, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Kaushik Basu & Tapan Mitra, 2003. "Aggregating Infinite Utility Streams with InterGenerational Equity: The Impossibility of Being Paretian," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(5), pages 1557-1563, 09. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Tjalling C. Koopmans, 1959. "Stationary Ordinal Utility and Impatience," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 81, Cowles Foundation, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
  5. Mitra, Tapan & Wan, Henry Jr., 1986. "On the faustmann solution to the forest management problem," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 229-249, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Gerard Debreu, 1959. "Topological Methods in Cardinal Utility Theory," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 76, Cowles Foundation, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
  7. Gerard Debreu & Tjalling C. Koopmans, 1980. "Additively Decomposed Quasiconvex Functions," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 574, Cowles Foundation, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
  8. Samuelson, Paul A, 1976. "Economics of Forestry in an Evolving Society," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 466-92, December.
  9. Yaari, Menahem E, 1977. "A Note on Separability and Quasiconcavity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(5), pages 1183-86, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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