If the historical average annual real interest rate is m 0, and if the world is stationary, should consumption in the distant future be discounted at the rate of m per year? Suppose the annual real interest rate r(t) reverts to m according to the Ornstein Uhlenbeck (OU) continuous time process...

This article examines the issue of whether low-carbon growth might be in the self-interest of Brazil, India, and China. These countries are the largest member countries of the G20 emerging markets (GEMs), and are also members of the BRIC and BASIC grouping of countries. Individually, they are...

This article suggests that some or all G-20 Emerging Markets (GEMs = Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, South Africa, and Turkey) could seize the climate policy agenda and open up these broader opportunities with a coordinated, self-interested announcement to exploit the...

Conventional benefit–cost analysis incorporates the normally reasonable assumption that the policy or project under examination is marginal. Among the assumptions this entails is that the policy or project is small, so the underlying growth rate of the economy does not change. However, this...

Arguments about the appropriate discount rate often start by assuming a Utilitarian social welfare function with isoelastic utility, in which the consumption discount rate is a function of the (constant) elasticity of marginal utility along with the (much discussed) utility discount rate. In...

Arguments about the appropriate discount rate often start by assuming a Utilitarian social welfare function with isoelastic utility, in which the consumption discount rate is a function of the (constant) elasticity of marginal utility along with the (much discussed) utility discount rate. In...