IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/umnees/0934.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Age Dependent Discount Rates, Time Inconsistent Behavior and Welfare Measurement

Author

Listed:

Abstract

This paper concerns welfare measurement in a dynamic economy where the instantaneous rate of time preference is age dependent. If agents are naive and do not recognize this age dependency, their savings decisions will be time inconsistent and the purpose of this paper is to analyze how the current value Hamiltonian, which is interpretable as a measure of the comprehensive net national product in utility terms, is related to welfare in this context. The problem is addressed within a standard Ramsey model and the main result is that if the discount rate declines (increases) over time along an optimal path where net investment is positive, then the current value Hamiltonian underestimates (overestimates) a measure of the interest on the present value of future utility.

Suggested Citation

  • Sjögren, Tomas, 2016. "Age Dependent Discount Rates, Time Inconsistent Behavior and Welfare Measurement," Umeå Economic Studies 934, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:umnees:0934
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.usbe.umu.se/digitalAssets/182/182174_ues934.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. R. A. Pollak, 1968. "Consistent Planning," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 35(2), pages 201-208.
    2. Thaler, Richard, 1981. "Some empirical evidence on dynamic inconsistency," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 201-207.
    3. Laux, Fritz L., 2000. "Addiction as a market failure: using rational addiction results to justify tobacco regulation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 421-437, July.
    4. Hartwick, John M., 1990. "Natural resources, national accounting and economic depreciation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 291-304, December.
    5. George Loewenstein & Drazen Prelec, 1992. "Anomalies in Intertemporal Choice: Evidence and an Interpretation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 573-597.
    6. David M. Bishai, 2004. "Does time preference change with age?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 17(4), pages 583-602, December.
    7. David Laibson, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 443-478.
    8. Martin L. Weitzman, 2001. "A Contribution to the Theory of Welfare Accounting," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 103(1), pages 1-23, March.
    9. Thomas Aronsson & Per-Olav Johansson, 1997. "Welfare Measurement, Sustainability and Green National Accounting," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1240.
    10. Thomas Aronsson & Karl-Gustaf Löfgren & Kenneth Backlund, 2004. "Welfare Measurement in Imperfect Markets," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2494.
    11. Li, Chuan-Zhong & Lofgren, Karl-Gustaf, 2000. "Renewable Resources and Economic Sustainability: A Dynamic Analysis with Heterogeneous Time Preferences," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 236-250, November.
    12. Saul Pleeter & John T. Warner, 2001. "The Personal Discount Rate: Evidence from Military Downsizing Programs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 33-53, March.
    13. Graciela Chichilnisky, 1996. "An axiomatic approach to sustainable development," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 13(2), pages 231-257, April.
    14. 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.
    15. Aronsson, Thomas & Lofgren, Karl-Gustaf, 1996. " Social Accounting and Welfare Measurement in a Growth Model with Human Capital," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(2), pages 185-201, June.
    16. Li, Chuan-Zhong & Löfgren, Karl-Gustaf, 2002. "On the Choice of Metrics in Dynamic Welfare Analysis: Utility versus Money Measures," Umeå Economic Studies 590, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    17. Robert J. Barro, 1999. "Ramsey Meets Laibson in the Neoclassical Growth Model," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1125-1152.
    18. Thomas Aronsson, 2008. "Social Accounting And The Public Sector," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(1), pages 349-375, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Koundouri, Phoebe & Groom, Ben, 2009. "Sustainability and the Economics of the Environment: Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Dynamics of the Long-Run Discount Rate," MPRA Paper 38278, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Le Kama, Alain Ayong & Schubert, Katheline, 2007. "A Note On The Consequences Of An Endogenous Discounting Depending On The Environmental Quality," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 272-289, April.
    3. Drouhin, Nicolas, 2020. "Non-stationary additive utility and time consistency," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1-14.
    4. Winkler, Ralph, 2009. "Now or Never: Environmental Protection under Hyperbolic Discounting," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-22.
    5. Caputo, Michael R., 2013. "The intrinsic comparative dynamics of infinite horizon optimal control problems with a time-varying discount rate and time-distance discounting," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 810-820.
    6. Marín-Solano, Jesús & Navas, Jorge, 2010. "Consumption and portfolio rules for time-inconsistent investors," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 201(3), pages 860-872, March.
    7. Zhao, Qian & Shen, Yang & Wei, Jiaqin, 2014. "Consumption–investment strategies with non-exponential discounting and logarithmic utility," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 238(3), pages 824-835.
    8. Hammond, Peter J & Zank, Horst, 2013. "Rationality and Dynamic Consistency under Risk and Uncertainty," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1033, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    9. Geoffrey Heal & Antony Millner, 2013. "Discounting under Disagreement," NBER Working Papers 18999, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Marín-Solano, Jesús & Navas, Jorge, 2009. "Non-constant discounting in finite horizon: The free terminal time case," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 666-675, March.
    11. Cameron Hepburn & Greer Gosnell, 2014. "Evaluating impacts in the distant future: cost–benefit analysis, discounting and the alternatives," Chapters, in: Giles Atkinson & Simon Dietz & Eric Neumayer & Matthew Agarwala (ed.), Handbook of Sustainable Development, chapter 9, pages 140-159, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Karbowski, Adam, 2016. "Discussion on the Social Rate of Discount: from Sen to Behavioural Economics," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(2), pages 46-60.
    13. Wojciech Rybicki, 2012. "Discounting and ideas of intergenerational equity and sustainability," Operations Research and Decisions, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Management, vol. 22(1), pages 63-84.
    14. Therese Grijalva & Jayson Lusk & W. Shaw, 2014. "Discounting the Distant Future: An Experimental Investigation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 59(1), pages 39-63, September.
    15. Sorger, Gerhard, 2007. "Time-preference and commitment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 556-578, April.
    16. Yu-Jui Huang & Adrien Nguyen-Huu, 2018. "Time-consistent stopping under decreasing impatience," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 69-95, January.
    17. Marieka M. Klawitter & C. Leigh Anderson & Mary Kay Gugerty, 2013. "Savings And Personal Discount Rates In A Matched Savings Program For Low-Income Families," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(3), pages 468-485, July.
    18. O'Donoghue, Ted & Rabin, Matthew, 2008. "Procrastination on long-term projects," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 161-175, May.
    19. Philip Streich & Jack S. Levy, 2007. "Time Horizons, Discounting, and Intertemporal Choice," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 51(2), pages 199-226, April.
    20. Faralla, Valeria & Novarese, Marco & Ardizzone, Antonella, 2017. "Framing Effects in Intertemporal Choice: A Nudge Experiment," MPRA Paper 82086, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    welfare measurement; time inconsistency; discounting; dynamic economies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:umnees:0934. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: David Skog (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inumuse.html .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.