Discounting
For policies with long-run implications, the choice of how to discount future costs and benefits can have enormous significance. RFF research interests include how to best empirically determine the appropriate discount rate, whether it should decrease over time (hyperbolic discounting), and approaches to incorporating uncertainty and tail effects.
Discounting 101
How does discounting help decisionmakers understand the costs and benefits of choices and policies—and how does it apply to climate change?
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Discounting in an Intergenerational Context
Read about discounting future benefits and costs.
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Resources Magazine — Feb 25, 2021
How Permanently Can One Presidential Administration Impact Environmental Policy?
The Trump administration has reshaped how environmental regulations are implemented and how benefit-cost analyses are conducted. RFF’s Art Fraas and Richard D. Morgenstern debate how enduring these changes will be.
Common Resources — Jan 11, 2021
How Permanently Has the Outgoing Administration Impacted Environmental Policy?
The Trump administration has reshaped how environmental regulations are implemented and how benefit-cost analyses are conducted. RFF’s Art Fraas and Richard D. Morgenstern discuss and debate how enduring these changes will be.
Explainer — Jan 16, 2020
Discounting 101
How does discounting help decisionmakers understand the costs and benefits of choices and policies—and how does it apply to climate change?
Explainer — Jan 16, 2020
Discounting 101
How does discounting help decisionmakers understand the costs and benefits of choices and policies—and how does it apply to climate change?
Explainer — Aug 1, 2019
Social Cost of Carbon 101
A review of the social cost of carbon, from a basic definition to the history of its use in policy analysis.
Working Paper — Feb 1, 2019
Discounting for Public Cost–Benefit Analysis
How to bound the discount rate for a general pattern of benefits over time.
Resources Magazine — Feb 25, 2021
How Permanently Can One Presidential Administration Impact Environmental Policy?
The Trump administration has reshaped how environmental regulations are implemented and how benefit-cost analyses are conducted. RFF’s Art Fraas and Richard D. Morgenstern debate how enduring these changes will be.
Common Resources — Jan 11, 2021
How Permanently Has the Outgoing Administration Impacted Environmental Policy?
The Trump administration has reshaped how environmental regulations are implemented and how benefit-cost analyses are conducted. RFF’s Art Fraas and Richard D. Morgenstern discuss and debate how enduring these changes will be.
Common Resources — Sep 5, 2013
Estimating The Social Cost Of Carbon: Robert Pindyck’s Critique
The US government’s new consensus estimate of the social cost of carbon (SCC)—around $43 per ton of CO2 from a 2020 baseline—has met with some appr...