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Discounting, beyond Utilitarianism

Author

Listed:
  • Stéphane Zuber

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Marc Fleurbaey

    (Woodrow Wilson School and Center for Human Values - Princeton University)

Abstract

Discounted utilitarianism and the Ramsey equation prevail in the debate on the discount rate on consumption. The utility discount rate is assumed to be constant and to reflect either the uncertainty about the existence of future generations or a pure preference for the present. The authors question the unique status of discounted utilitarianism and discuss the implications of alternative criteria addressing the key issues of equity in risky situations and variable population. To do so, they introduce a class of intertemporal social objectives, named Expected Prioritarian Equally Distributed Equivalent (EPEDE) criteria. The class is more flexible than discounted utilitarianism in terms of population ethics and it disentangles risk aversion and inequality aversion. The authors show that these social objectives imply interesting modifications of the Ramsey formula, and shed new light on Weitzman's "dismal theorem".

Suggested Citation

  • Stéphane Zuber & Marc Fleurbaey, 2015. "Discounting, beyond Utilitarianism," Post-Print hal-01300618, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01300618
    DOI: 10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2015-12
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    Citations

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

    1. Dean Spears, 2017. "Making people happy or making happy people? Questionnaire-experimental studies of population ethics and policy," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 49(1), pages 145-169, June.
    2. Jean-Marc Bonnisseau & Alain Chateauneuf & Jean-Pierre Drugeon, 2023. "On Future Allocations of Scarce Resources without Explicit Discounting Factors," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 23004, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    3. Aurélie Méjean & Antonin Pottier & Marc Fleurbaey & Stéphane Zuber, 2020. "Catastrophic climate change, population ethics and intergenerational equity," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 873-890, November.
    4. Aurélie Méjean & Antonin Pottier & Stéphane Zuber & Marc Fleurbaey, 2017. "Intergenerational equity under catastrophic climate change," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 17040, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    5. Dean Spears & Stéphane Zuber, 2023. "Foundations of utilitarianism under risk and variable population," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 61(1), pages 101-129, July.
    6. Adler, Matthew D. & Bossert, Walter & Cato, Susumu & Kamaga, Kohei, 2025. "Ex-post approaches to prioritarianism and sufficientarianism," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 20(4), November.
    7. Piacquadio, Paolo G., 2020. "The ethics of intergenerational risk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    8. Fleurbaey, Marc & Zuber, Stéphane, 2015. "Discounting, risk and inequality: A general approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 34-49.
    9. Jean-Marc Bonnisseau & Alain Chateauneuf & Jean-Pierre Drugeon, 2023. "On the (Ir)Relevance of Discount Factors for Future Allocations of Scarce Resources," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 23004r, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, revised Jan 2025.
    10. Hänsel, Martin C. & Quaas, Martin F., 2018. "Intertemporal Distribution, Sufficiency, and the Social Cost of Carbon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 520-535.
    11. Méjean, Aurélie & Pottier, Antonin & Zuber, Stéphane & Fleurbaey, Marc, 2023. "Opposite ethical views converge under the threat of catastrophic climate change," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    12. Fleurbaey, Marc & Zuber, Stéphane, 2015. "Discounting, beyond utilitarianism," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-52.
    13. Dean Spears & Mark Budolfson, 2021. "Repugnant conclusions," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 57(3), pages 567-588, October.
    14. Marc Fleurbaey, 2018. "Welfare economics, risk and uncertainty," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 51(1), pages 5-40, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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