In September 2011, the US Environmental Protection Agency asked 12 economists how the benefits and costs of regulations should be discounted for projects that affect future generations. This paper summarizes the views of the panel on three topics -- the use of the Ramsey formula as an organizing...

In September 2011, the US Environmental Protection Agency asked 12 economists how the benefits and costs of regulations should be discounted for projects that affect future generations. This paper summarizes the views of the panel on three topics: the use of the Ramsey formula as an organizing...

In September 2011, the US Environmental Protection Agency asked 12 economists how the benefits and costs of regulations should be discounted for projects that affect future generations. This paper summarizes the views of the panel on three topics: the use of the Ramsey formula as an organizing...

This note examines the question of calculating an augmented cost of living index (ACOLI). The ACOLI is the appropriate deflator to apply to pretax market incomes when calculating economic well-being. Well-being includes, not only conventional consumer purchases, but also goods and services...

In light of the accident at Three Mile Island, the paper presents a preliminary analysis of the compatibility between the analytical work of the Reactor Safety Study (Rasmussen Report) and actuarial experience. The technique is a "macroanalytic" approach rather than the "microanalytic" method of...

The proposals in our policy memorandum on economic stabilization -- a restrictive monetary policy and a fiscal policy that eliminates the government deficit -- are shaped by our view that the Soviet Union today faces a mounting economic crisis. As we emphasized in our discussion in the policy...

Learning or experience curves are widely used to estimate cost functions in manufacturing modeling. They have recently been introduced in policy models of energy and global warming economics to make the process of technological change endogenous. It is not widely appreciated that this is a...

The notion that "everything is connected to everything else" runs through all of modern economics. Economies are connected in the production sphere through the inputs and outputs that circulate through the world; they are connected through the exchange of goods and services; and they are...