The social cost of carbon (SCC) is a key tool in climate policy. The SCC expresses in monetary terms the social impact of the emission of a ton of CO2 in a given year. The SCC is calculated using a ‘social welfare function’ (SWF): a method for assessing social Q.1 welfare. The dominant SWFin climate policy is the discounted-utilitarian SWF. Individuals’well-being numbers (utilities) are summed, and the values for later generations are reduced (‘discounted’). This SWF has been criticized for ignoring the distribution of well-being and including an arbitrary time preference. Here, we use a ‘prioritarian’ SWF, with no time discount, to calculate the SCC. This SWF gives extra weight (‘priority’) to worse-o individuals. Prioritarianism is a well-developed concept in ethics and welfare economics, but has been rarely used in climate scholarship. We find substantial dierences between the discounted-utilitarian and non-discounted prioritarian SCCs.
Priority for the worse-off and the social cost of carbon
BOSETTI, VALENTINA;
2017
Abstract
The social cost of carbon (SCC) is a key tool in climate policy. The SCC expresses in monetary terms the social impact of the emission of a ton of CO2 in a given year. The SCC is calculated using a ‘social welfare function’ (SWF): a method for assessing social Q.1 welfare. The dominant SWFin climate policy is the discounted-utilitarian SWF. Individuals’well-being numbers (utilities) are summed, and the values for later generations are reduced (‘discounted’). This SWF has been criticized for ignoring the distribution of well-being and including an arbitrary time preference. Here, we use a ‘prioritarian’ SWF, with no time discount, to calculate the SCC. This SWF gives extra weight (‘priority’) to worse-o individuals. Prioritarianism is a well-developed concept in ethics and welfare economics, but has been rarely used in climate scholarship. We find substantial dierences between the discounted-utilitarian and non-discounted prioritarian SCCs.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
---|---|---|---|
Adler_et_al_Priority_for_the_Worse_Off_NCC_Second_Resubmission_Manuscript_Final.pdf
accesso aperto
Descrizione: preprint
Tipologia:
Documento in Pre-print (Pre-print document)
Licenza:
PUBBLICO DOMINIO
Dimensione
1.13 MB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
1.13 MB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.