Putting a price on the future of our children and grandchildren

Discounting has the dubious distinction of being the most controversial issue in social cost-benefit analysis. This is largely because choosing the discount rate will often dominate other choices a modeler makes. For example, consider how we might estimate future damages from greenhouse gas emissions.

In spite of the multiple layers of uncertainty surrounding natural science issues, most of the controversy over Stern’s The Economics of Climate Change concerned one number: the discount rate.

"Putting a price on the future of our children and grandchildren" is a chapter in Livermore and Revesz “The Globalisation of Cost-Benefit Analysis on Environmental Policy”