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Three Essays on Intergenerational Externalities

Howard, Gregory E.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1343142443

Abstract Details

2012, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics.
This dissertation investigates several issues that are either unique or particularly pressing when they concern the analysis of policies with intergenerational implications. Many environmental issues faced today possess these intergenerational implications, from climate change to biodiversity loss to the use of nuclear power. The first chapter considers the effectiveness of a variation of Coasian bargaining as a policy instrument for internalizing multiple intergenerational externalities. I develop a simple theoretical model in which two intergenerational externalities exist and the welfare impacts of a bargaining policy are compared to those of a tax-and-subsidy regime, primarily through the use of numerical simulation methods. The second chapter extends the contributions made by Andersen et al. (2008) in the area of jointly eliciting risk and time preferences in subjects by relaxing some of the stringent assumptions imposed by Andersen and his colleagues regarding background consumption and utility specification. I elicit discount rates from a single sample of undergraduates using three different methods in order to test how discount rates change when the researcher allows for a) background consumption heterogeneity and b) an unspecified utility functional form. I find that both changes to the elicitation method decrease discount rates. The third chapter develops and analyzes the results of a lab experiment designed to test whether individuals discount personal and social benefits at different rates. I find that subjects discount social payments (in the form of charitable contributions) at a significantly lower rate than personal payments. This result has potential implications for both the public policy and behavioral economic literatures.
Timothy Haab, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Brian Roe, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Brent Sohngen, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
186 p.
Economics; Environmental Economics; Experiments
externality; discount rate; risk preferences; bargaining

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Howard, G. E. (2012). Three Essays on Intergenerational Externalities [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1343142443

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Howard, Gregory. Three Essays on Intergenerational Externalities. 2012. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1343142443.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Howard, Gregory. "Three Essays on Intergenerational Externalities." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1343142443

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1343142443
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© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.