Global warming, alterations of ecosystems, and sunk investments all imply irreversible changes with uncertain future costs and benefits. The Arrow–Fisher–Hanemann–Henry quasi-option value and the Dixit–Pindyck option value both measure how irreversibility and uncertainty change the value...

The paper shows how limited substitutability in consumption between different classes of goods affects the magnitude and time development of social discount rates. It decomposes the discount rates into an absolute growth and a relative growth or substitutability effect. The paper relates...

The uncertainty of future economic development affects the term structure of discount rates and, thus, the intertemporal weights that are to be used in cost benefit analysis. The U.K. and France have recently adopted a falling term structure to incorporate uncertainty and the U.S. is considering...