IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nan/wpaper/1808.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Global Extinction and Animal Welfare: Two Priorities for Effective Altruism

Author

Listed:
  • Yew-Kwang Ng

    (Department of Economics, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Abstract

Effective altruism should ultimately be for the promotion of aggregate welfare. Broad altruism does not confine welfare to humans only. Thus, two priorities for broad and effective altruism may include reducing the probabilities of global extinction and the promotion of animal welfare. The former is important because if we become extinct, we lose the enormous amount of welfare into the far future. Also, we are faced with extinction probabilities that could be reduced, including through better environmental protection. Moreover, if we can avoid extinction, we will likely be able to increase our welfare enormously through such scientific and technological breakthroughs like brain stimulation and genetic engineering. Whether artificial intelligence may threaten our survival soon is also briefly discussed. An effective way to promote animal welfare is to reduce animal suffering at small or even negative costs for humans.

Suggested Citation

  • Yew-Kwang Ng, 2018. "Global Extinction and Animal Welfare: Two Priorities for Effective Altruism," Economic Growth Centre Working Paper Series 1808, Nanyang Technological University, School of Social Sciences, Economic Growth Centre.
    • Handle: RePEc:nan:wpaper:1808
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://web.hss.ntu.edu.sg/egc/wp/2018/2018-08.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:bla:ecorec:v:52:y:1976:i:139:p:302-14 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Siddhartha Biswas & Indraneel Chakraborty & Rong Hai, 2017. "Income Inequality, Tax Policy, and Economic Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(601), pages 688-727, May.
    3. Ian W. R. Martin & Robert S. Pindyck, 2015. "Averting Catastrophes: The Strange Economics of Scylla and Charybdis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 2947-2985, October.
    4. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    5. Rolf Aaberge & François Bourguignon & Andrea Brandolini & Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Janet C. Gornick & John Hills & Markus Jäntti & Stephen P. Jenkins & Eric Marlier & John Micklewright & Brian Nolan, 2017. "Tony Atkinson and his Legacy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(3), pages 411-444, September.
    6. Jonathan Gruber & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2006. "Do Cigarette Taxes Make Smokers Happier?," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Yew-Kwang Ng & Lok Sang Ho (ed.), Happiness and Public Policy, chapter 6, pages 109-146, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Martin L. Weitzman, 2009. "On Modeling and Interpreting the Economics of Catastrophic Climate Change," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(1), pages 1-19, February.
    8. J. Annan & J. Hargreaves, 2011. "On the generation and interpretation of probabilistic estimates of climate sensitivity," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 104(3), pages 423-436, February.
    9. Siddhartha Biswas & Indraneel Chakraborty & Rong Hai, 2017. "Income Inequality, Tax Policy, and Economic Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(601), pages 688-727, May.
    10. Graciela Chichilnisky & Peter Eisenberger, 2010. "Asteroids: Assessing Catastrophic Risks," Journal of Probability and Statistics, Hindawi, vol. 2010, pages 1-15, August.
    11. Arthur J. Robson, 2017. "Group Selection: A Review Essay on Does Altruism Exist? by David Sloan Wilson," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1570-1582, December.
    12. Ng, Yew-Kwang, 2007. "Eternal Coase and external costs: A case for bilateral taxation and amenity rights," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 641-659, September.
    13. Robert S. Pindyck & Neng Wang, 2013. "The Economic and Policy Consequences of Catastrophes," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 306-339, November.
    14. Grainger, Alan, 2017. "The prospect of global environmental relativities after an Anthropocene tipping point," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 36-49.
    15. Andreoni, James, 1990. "Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(401), pages 464-477, June.
    16. R. M. Parish, 1976. "The Scope of Benefit‐Cost Analysis," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 52(3), pages 302-314, September.
    17. Sergey V. Buldyrev & Roni Parshani & Gerald Paul & H. Eugene Stanley & Shlomo Havlin, 2010. "Catastrophic cascade of failures in interdependent networks," Nature, Nature, vol. 464(7291), pages 1025-1028, April.
    18. Jason G. Matheny, 2007. "Reducing the Risk of Human Extinction," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 1335-1344, October.
    19. Ng, Yew-Kwang, 1990. "Welfarism and Utilitarianism: A Rehabilitation," Utilitas, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(2), pages 171-193, November.
    20. Peter M. Solar, 1995. "Poor relief and English economic development before the industrial revolution," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 48(1), pages 1-22, February.
    21. Jason C. Reinhardt & Xi Chen & Wenhao Liu & Petar Manchev & M. Elisabeth Paté‐Cornell, 2016. "Asteroid Risk Assessment: A Probabilistic Approach," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(2), pages 244-261, February.
    22. Nick Bostrom, 2013. "Existential Risk Prevention as Global Priority," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 4(1), pages 15-31, 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. Christoph M. Rheinberger & Nicolas Treich, 2017. "Attitudes Toward Catastrophe," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(3), pages 609-636, July.
    2. Ilan Noy & Tomáš Uher, 2022. "Four New Horsemen of an Apocalypse? Solar Flares, Super-volcanoes, Pandemics, and Artificial Intelligence," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 393-416, July.
    3. Owen Cotton‐Barratt & Max Daniel & Anders Sandberg, 2020. "Defence in Depth Against Human Extinction: Prevention, Response, Resilience, and Why They All Matter," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 11(3), pages 271-282, May.
    4. Buchholz Wolfgang & Heindl Peter, 2015. "Ökonomische Herausforderungen des Klimawandels," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 16(4), pages 324-350, December.
    5. Ian W. R. Martin & Robert S. Pindyck, 2015. "Averting Catastrophes: The Strange Economics of Scylla and Charybdis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 2947-2985, October.
    6. Yew-Kwang Ng, 2016. "The Importance of Global Extinction in Climate Change Policy," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 7(3), pages 315-322, September.
    7. Harrison Hong & Neng Wang & Jinqiang Yang, 2020. "Mitigating Disaster Risks in the Age of Climate Change," NBER Working Papers 27066, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Seth D. Baum, 2018. "Uncertain human consequences in asteroid risk analysis and the global catastrophe threshold," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 94(2), pages 759-775, November.
    9. Charles I. Jones, 2025. "How Much Should We Spend to Reduce AI's Existential Risk?," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Transformative AI, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Simon Levin & Anastasios Xepapadeas, 2021. "On the Coevolution of Economic and Ecological Systems," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 355-377, October.
    11. Aseem Kaul & Jiao Luo, 2018. "An economic case for CSR: The comparative efficiency of for‐profit firms in meeting consumer demand for social goods," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(6), pages 1650-1677, June.
    12. Seth D. Baum & Timothy M. Maher & Jacob Haqq-Misra, 2013. "Double catastrophe: intermittent stratospheric geoengineering induced by societal collapse," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 168-180, March.
    13. Antonio C. David & Can Sever, 2024. "Electoral cycles in tax reforms," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 495-529, August.
    14. Sarsirah Koon@Jamaludin & Caroline Geetha A/p B. Arokiadasan & Wong Sing Yun, 2025. "A Literature Review on the Trends and Implications of Economic Shocks on Income Inequality in Malaysia," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(3), pages 4222-4231, March.
    15. Fleurbaey, Marc & Zuber, Stéphane, 2017. "Fair management of social risk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 666-706.
    16. Dieter Schmidtchen & Jenny Helstroffer & Christian Koboldt, 2021. "Regulatory failure and the polluter pays principle: why regulatory impact assessment dominates the polluter pays principle," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(1), pages 109-144, January.
    17. Dragicevic, Arnaud Z. & Ettinger, David, 2011. "Private Valuation of a Public Good in Three Auction Mechanisms," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(2), pages 1-29, April.
    18. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2009. "Should National Happiness be Maximized?," Chapters, in: Amitava Krishna Dutt & Benjamin Radcliff (ed.), Happiness, Economics and Politics, chapter 14, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Neelam Sharma & Amit Srivastava & Sakshi Khanna, 2025. "Threshold Dynamics of Public Expenditure on Human Development: Reflections from India," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 2, pages 514-536, June.
    20. Jannati, Sima, 2020. "Geographic spillover of dominant firms’ shocks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General
    • A10 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - General

    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:nan:wpaper:1808. 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: Magdalene Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dentusg.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.