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Cost-benefit Analysis of Climate Change: Stern Revisited

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  • Baer, Paul
  • Spash, Clive L.

Abstract

This paper explores the insurmountable challenges facing orthodox economic approaches to assessing climate control as if it were a matter of weighing-up the costs of money spent to benefits as the returns on an investment. Such am appraisal method borrows form project appraisal for financial investment and is inappropriate for addressing social costs. In appraising the recent approach to human induced climate change of to the UK Government report by Stern and colleagues serious flaws are noted that are equally applicable to other similar work by economists such as Nordhaus and Tol.

Suggested Citation

  • Baer, Paul & Spash, Clive L., 2008. "Cost-benefit Analysis of Climate Change: Stern Revisited," MPRA Paper 101829, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:101829
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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/101829/1/MPRA_paper_101829.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    6. Lowenstein, George & Prelec, Drazen, 1991. "Negative Time Preference," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 347-352, May.
    7. Spash, Clive L., 2007. "The economics of climate change impacts a la Stern: Novel and nuanced or rhetorically restricted?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 706-713, September.
    8. Richard Tol, 2002. "Estimates of the Damage Costs of Climate Change, Part II. Dynamic Estimates," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 21(2), pages 135-160, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Valentin Cojanu, 2022. "The value of sacrifice in (post-)growth scenarios," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 4322-4339, December.
    2. Clive L. Spash & Clemens Gattringer, 2016. "The Economics and Ethics of Human Induced Climate Change," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2016_02, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    3. Carlo Jaeger & Julia Jaeger, 2010. "Three Views Of Two Degrees," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 1(03), pages 145-166.
    4. Adrian Amelung, 2016. "Das "Paris-Agreement": Durchbruch der Top-Down-Klimaschutzverhandlungen im Kreise der Vereinten Nationen," Otto-Wolff-Institut Discussion Paper Series 03/2016, Otto-Wolff-Institut für Wirtschaftsordnung, Köln, Deutschland.
    5. Hansen, LeRoy T., 2009. "The Viability of Creating Wetlands for the Sale of Carbon Offsets," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 34(2), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Valentin Cojanu, 2021. "The value of sacrifice in (post-)growth scenarios," Post-Print hal-03384636, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Climate economics; cost-benefit analysis; Stern review; catastrophe; human induced change; public policy; evaluation; monetary valuation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • O44 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Environment and Growth
    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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