On Multiple Discount Rates

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chambers, Christopher P.; Echenique, Federico
• 署名单位: Georgetown University; California Institute of Technology
• 刊物名称: ECONOMETRICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0012-9682
• DOI: 10.3982/ECTA14866
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 1325-1346
• 关键词: Intergenerational equity; utility; Utilitarianism; Impossibility; aggregation; beliefs; welfare

摘要

We study the problem of resolving conflicting discount rates via a social choice approach. We introduce several axioms, seeking to capture the tension between allowing for intergenerational comparisons of utility, and imposing intergenerational fairness. Depending on which axioms are judged appropriate, we are led to one of several conclusions: a utilitarian, maxmin, or a multi-utilitarian rule, whereby a utility stream is judged by the worst in a set of utilitarian weighting schemes across discount rates.