Non-dogmatic social discounting
The long run social discount rate has an enormous effect on the value of climate mitigation, infrastructure projects, and other long-term public policies. Its value is however highly contested, in part because of normative disagreements about social time preferences. I develop a theory of ‘non-dogmatic’ social planners, who are insecure in their current normative judgments, and entertain the possibility that they may change. Although each non-dogmatic planner advocates an idiosyncratic theory of intertemporal social welfare, all such planners agree on the long run social discount rate. Nondogmatism thus goes some way towards resolving normative disagreements, especially for long-term public projects.
Date: 19 October 2018, 12:00 (Friday, 2nd week, Michaelmas 2018)
Venue: Littlegate House, 16-17 St Ebbe's Street OX1 1PT
Venue Details: Petrov Room (Suite 5)
Speaker: Antony Millner (Grantham Institute, LSE)
Organising department: Department of Economics
Organisers: Prof Hilary Greaves (University of Oxford), Rossa O'Keeffe-O'Donovan (Nuffield College)
Organiser contact email address: james@globalprioritiesinstitute.org
Part of: Global Priorities Institute (GPI) Seminar Series
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Rossa O'Keeffe-O'Donovan