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Asset Pricing Implications of Macroeconomic Interventions An Application to Climate Policy

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  • Rajnish Mehra

Abstract

This paper illustrates that evaluating alternate abatement polices that affect the growth path of an economy on the basis of their effects on asset valuation may not be welfare enhancing. We show that the class of abatement polices considered in the integrated assessment literature are robust with respect to the choice of a discount factor if lifetime consumption equivalents are used as a metric. We argue against a global welfare function in the presence of significant global household heterogeneity. While economic analysis is a useful tool for evaluating different policies for a homogenous class of households, inter household comparisons are an ethical issue.

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  • Rajnish Mehra, 2013. "Asset Pricing Implications of Macroeconomic Interventions An Application to Climate Policy," NBER Working Papers 19146, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19146
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • E6 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook
    • G00 - Financial Economics - - General - - - General
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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