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The social discount rate

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Author Info
Andrew Caplin
John Leahy

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Abstract

In welfare theory it is standard to pick the consumption stream that maximizes the welfare of the representative agent. We argue against this position, and show that a benevolent social planner will generally place a greater weight on future consumption than does the representative agent.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in its series Discussion Paper / Institute for Empirical Macroeconomics with number 137.

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Date of creation: 2001
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmem:137

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Keywords: Welfare;

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Kimball, Miles S., 1987. "Making sense of two-sided altruism," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 301-326, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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    Other versions:
  3. David I. Laibson, 1996. "Hyperbolic Discount Functions, Undersaving, and Savings Policy," NBER Working Papers 5635, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Loewenstein, George & Thaler, Richard H, 1989. "Intertemporal Choice," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 181-93, Fall. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Wolf, Charles, Jr, 1970. "The Present Value of the Past," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(4), pages 783-92, Part I Ju. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Kahneman, Daniel & Wakker, Peter P & Sarin, Rakesh, 1997. "Back to Bentham? Explorations of Experienced Utility," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(2), pages 375-405, May.
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    • Robert J. Barro & Paul M. Romer, 1991. "Economic Growth," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number barr91-1.
  16. Ted O'Donoghue & Matthew Rabin, 1999. "Doing It Now or Later," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 103-124, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1972. "Expectations and the neutrality of money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 103-124, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Brunnermeier, Markus K & Gollier, Christian & Parker, Jonathan A, 2007. "Optimal Beliefs, Asset Prices and the Preference for Skewed Returns," CEPR Discussion Papers 6181, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Emmanuel Farhi & Ivan Werning, 2005. "Inequality, Social Discounting and Estate Taxation," NBER Working Papers 11408, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Filippos Papakonstantinou & Jonathan A. Parker, 2008. "An Economic Model of the Planning Fallacy," NBER Working Papers 14228, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Christopher Phelan, 2002. "Inequality and fairness," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Spr. [Downloadable!]
  5. Isabelle Brocas & Juan D. Carrillo, 2005. "The Brain as a Hierarchical Organization," Levine's Bibliography 172782000000000073, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  6. Arjan Lejour & Paul Veenendaal & Gerard Verweij & Nico van Leeuwen, 2006. "Worldscan; a model for international economic policy analysis," CPB Documents 111, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. [Downloadable!]
  7. Isabelle Brocas & Juan D. Carrillo, 2005. "The Brain as a Hierarchical Organization," Levine's Bibliography 784828000000000205, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  8. Alexander Ludwig & Michael Reiter, 2008. "Sharing Demographic Risk – Who is Afraid of the Baby Bust?," MEA discussion paper series 08166, Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA), University of Mannheim. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Fiona Scott Morton & Sharon Oster, 2003. "Behavioral Decision-Making: An Application to the Setting of Magazine Subscription Prices," NBER Working Papers 10120, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Manuel Amador & Ivan Werning & George-Marios Angeletos, 2003. "Commitment Vs. Flexibility," NBER Working Papers 10151, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  11. Claude Montmarquette & Iain Scott, 2007. "Taux d’actualisation pour l’évaluation des investissements publics au Québec," CIRANO Project Reports 2007rp-02, CIRANO. [Downloadable!]
  12. Hanming Fang & Dan Silverman, 2004. "Time-inconsistency and Welfare Program Participation: Evidence from the NLSY," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1465, Cowles Foundation, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  13. Ahmed Anwar, 2007. "The Apple Tree," ESE Discussion Papers 164, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh. [Downloadable!]
  14. Felipe Zurita, 2004. "La Tasa de Descuento Revisitada," Documentos de Trabajo 261, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.. [Downloadable!]
  15. Pivato, Marcus, 2008. "Sustainable preferences via nondiscounted, hyperreal intergenerational welfare functions," MPRA Paper 7461, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  16. Jonathan Gruber & Botond Koszegi, 2000. "Is Addiction "Rational"? Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 7507, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Isabelle Brocas & Juan D. Carillo, 2006. "The Brain as a Hierarchical Organization," IEPR Working Papers 06.48, Institute of Economic Policy Research (IEPR). [Downloadable!]
  18. Ayse Imrohoroglu & Selahattin Imrohoroglu & Douglas H. Joines, 2000. "Time inconsistent preferences and Social Security," Discussion Paper / Institute for Empirical Macroeconomics 136, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  19. Nick Davis & Richard Fabling, 2002. "Population Ageing and the Efficiency of Fiscal Policy in New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 02/11, New Zealand Treasury. [Downloadable!]
  20. Jay Bhattacharya & Darius Lakdawalla, 2004. "Time-Inconsistency and Welfare," NBER Working Papers 10345, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. repec:bep:eapadv:v:5:y:2005:i:1:p:1323-1323 is not listed on IDEAS
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