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Discounting the future, yet again

Australian National University, Australia, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Duke University, USA

The question of `discounting the future' is one on which philosophers and economists have divergent professional views. There is a lot of talking at cross-purposes across the disciplinary divide here; but there is a fair bit of confusion (I think) within disciplines as well. My aim here is essentially clarificatory. I draw several distinctions that I see as significant:

• between inter-temporal and intergenerational questions

• between price (discount rate) and quantity (inter-temporal and intergenerational allocations) as the ethically relevant magnitude, and

• between price change and preference change as the primary instrument of change.

I show that discounting does not violate the principle of inter-temporal and intergenerational neutrality, but I also cast some doubt on whether making adequate allowance for future generations has really been the problem that economists and philosophers seem to have taken it to be.

Key Words: discount rates • intergenerational justice • future generations • `feasibility' analysis

Politics, Philosophy & Economics, Vol. 6, No. 3, 259-284 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1470594X07081298


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