IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Login to save this article or follow this journal

Risk Aversion, Intergenerational Equity and Climate Change

Author Info

  • Minh Ha-Duong

    ()

  • Nicolas Treich

Abstract

The paper investigates a climate-economy model with an iso-elastic welfare function in which one parameter γ measures relative risk-aversion and a distinct parameter ρ measures resistance to intertemporal substitution.We show both theoretically and numerically that climate policy responds differently to variations in the two parameters. In particular, we show that higher γ but lower ρ leads to increase emissions control. We also argue that climate-economy models based on intertemporal expected utility maximization, i.e. models where γ=ρ, may misinterpret the sensitivity of the climate policy to risk-aversion. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/B:EARE.0000029915.04325.25
Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

Article provided by European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists in its journal Environmental and Resource Economics.

Volume (Year): 28 (2004)
Issue (Month): 2 (June)
Pages: 195-207

as
in new window

Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:28:y:2004:i:2:p:195-207
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=100263

Keywords: climate change; discounting; equity; risk-aversion;

Other versions of this item:

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.:

as in new window
  1. Reinhart, Carmen & Ogaki, Masao, 1995. "Measuring intertemporal substitution: The role of durable goods," MPRA Paper 13690, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  2. Kenneth J. Arrow, 1996. "Discounting, Morality, and Gaming," Working Papers 97004, Stanford University, Department of Economics.
  3. Normandin, Michel & St-Amour, Pascal, 1996. "Substitution, Risk Aversion, Taste Shocks and Equity Premia," Cahiers de recherche 9606, Université Laval - Département d'économique.
  4. Minh Ha-Duong & Nicolas Treich, 1999. "Recursive Intergenerational Utility in Global Climate Risk Modeling," CIRANO Working Papers 99s-40, CIRANO.
  5. Weitzman, Martin L., 1998. "Why the Far-Distant Future Should Be Discounted at Its Lowest Possible Rate," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 201-208, November.
  6. Robert B. Barsky & Miles S. Kimball & F. Thomas Juster & Matthew D. Shapiro, 1995. "Preference Parameters and Behavioral Heterogeneity: An Experimental Approach in the Health and Retirement Survey," NBER Working Papers 5213, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  7. Barsky, Robert B, et al, 1997. "Preference Parameters and Behavioral Heterogeneity: An Experimental Approach in the Health and Retirement Study," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(2), pages 537-79, May.
  8. Minh Ha-Duong & Michael Grubb & Jean-Charles Hourcade, 1997. "Influence of socioeconomic inertia and uncertainty on optimal CO2-emission abatement," Post-Print halshs-00002452, HAL.
  9. Kreps, David M & Porteus, Evan L, 1978. "Temporal Resolution of Uncertainty and Dynamic Choice Theory," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 185-200, January.
  10. Robert E. Hall, 1981. "Intertemporal Substitution in Consumption," NBER Working Papers 0720, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  11. Gollier, Christian, 2002. "Discounting an uncertain future," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 149-166, August.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.

as in new window


Cited by:

  1. Crost, Benjamin & Traeger, Christian P., 2010. "Risk and aversion in the integrated assessment of climate change," CUDARE Working Paper Series 1104R, University of California at Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Policy, revised Jul 2011.
  2. Helgeson, Jennifer & Dietz, Simon & Atkinson, Giles D. & Hepburn, Cameron & Sælen, Håkon, 2009. "Siblings, not triplets: social preferences for risk, inequality and time in discounting climate change," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, Kiel Institute for the World Economy, vol. 3, pages 1-28.
  3. Svenja Hector(), . "Accounting for Different Uncertainties: Implications for Climate Investments?," Working Papers ETH-RC-13-007, ETH Zurich, Chair of Systems Design.
  4. Noah Kaufman, 2012. "The bias of integrated assessment models that ignore climate catastrophes," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 575-595, February.
  5. Mariia Belaia & Michael Funke & Nicole Glanemann, 2014. "Global Warming and a Potential Tipping Point in the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation: The Role of Risk Aversion," CESifo Working Paper Series 4930, CESifo Group Munich.
  6. Richard S.J. Tol, 2011. "The Social Cost of Carbon," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 419-443, October.
  7. Frank Ackerman & Ian J. Finlayson, . "06-07 “The Economics of Inaction on Climate Change: A Sensitivity Analysis”," GDAE Working Papers 06-07, GDAE, Tufts University.
  8. Urvashi Narain & Michael Hanemann & Anthony Fisher, 2007. "The irreversibility effect in environmental decisionmaking," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 38(3), pages 391-405, November.
  9. Tol, Richard S. J., 2008. "The Economic Impact of Climate Change," Papers WP255, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
  10. Larry S. Karp, 2009. "Sacrifice, Discounting and Climate Policy: Five Questions," CESifo Working Paper Series 2761, CESifo Group Munich.
  11. Adler, Matthew & Treich, Nicolas, 2014. "Consumption, Risk and Prioritarianism," TSE Working Papers 14-500, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
  12. Frank Ackerman & Elizabeth Stanton & Ramón Bueno, 2013. "Epstein–Zin Utility in DICE: Is Risk Aversion Irrelevant to Climate Policy?," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 56(1), pages 73-84, September.
  13. Cameron Hepburn & Hakon Sælen & Giles Atkinson, 2008. "Risk, inequality and time in the welfare economics of climate change: is the workhorse model underspecified?," Economics Series Working Papers 400, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
  14. Hourcade, Jean-Charles & Ambrosi, Philippe & Dumas, Patrice, 2009. "Beyond the Stern Review: Lessons from a risky venture at the limits of the cost-benefit analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 2479-2484, August.
  15. Svenja Hector, 2013. "Accounting for Different Uncertainties: Implications for Climate Investments?," Working Papers 2013.107, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Access and download statistics

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:28:y:2004:i:2:p:195-207. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Guenther Eichhorn)

or (Christopher F. Baum)

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.