Intergenerational Equity (intergenerational + equity)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Smoothing the Fiscal Costs of Population Ageing in Australia: Effects on Intergenerational Equity and Social Welfare,

THE ECONOMIC RECORD, Issue 265 2008
ROSS GUEST
This paper applies an overlapping generations model in order to evaluate the case for smoothing the fiscal costs associated with population ageing. The motivation is the establishment in Australia of the Future Fund which acts to smooth the tax burden over time. The conclusion is that tax smoothing of the order implied by the Future Fund yields a gain in social welfare in the order of 1.0 per cent in equivalent annual increases in GDP. All current generations of workers and retired workers are worse off, with middle-aged workers the worst affected, but future generations are better off and by larger magnitudes. [source]


Age-Dependent Taxation and the Optimal Retirement Benefit Formula

GERMAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2008
Mathias Kifmann
Optimal taxation; pay-as-you-go pension systems; implicit taxation; intra- and intergenerational equity; financial stability Abstract. This paper presents a comprehensive view of lifetime taxation including both explicit taxation through the general tax system and implicit taxation via the retirement benefit formula. Differences in productivity between individuals are unobservable, which provides a rationale for the use of distortionary taxes. It is shown that the optimal structure of age-dependent taxation can be characterized by a generalized Ramsey formula. Furthermore, the paper derives the optimal retirement benefit formula in the presence of the general tax system and examines the compatibility with the financial stability of the pension system. [source]


An Introduction to Spatial Discounting

JOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2001
Charles Perrings
Research on the valuation of environmental externalities shows that decision makers tend to discount not only over time but across space. Just as time discounting has implications for intergenerational equity, geographical or spatial discounting has implications for intragenerational equity. Similarly, just as positive time discount rates are warranted by positive net rates of growth of the capital stock, positive spatial discount rates may be warranted by the fact that enviironmental (or other external effects of economic activity are diffused at positive rates. This paper introduces the notion of spatial discounting and explores its welfare implications through a simple diffusion model. [source]


WEAK AND STRONG SUSTAINABILITY, ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

NATURAL RESOURCE MODELING, Issue 3 2006
WERNER HEDIGER
ABSTRACT. To investigate the role of explicit and implicit assumptions in different models of weak and strong sustain-ability, the Solow/Hartwick model of intergenerational equity with nonrenewable resources is gradually extended to include renewable resources, endogenous technical progress, and stock pollution. This reveals the fundamental role of endogenous technical progress for sustainable development, the inconsistency of implicit sustainability assumptions in various models, as well as the existence of a Hartwick rule for Daly's steady-state economy. Moreover, it shows that the concepts of Solow sustainability and strong sustainability coincide as a special case of weak sustainability. The latter integrates economic and environmental concerns and aims at maintaining the welfare potential of an economy over time. It does not rule out economic growth by assumption. Rather, the analysis shows that environmental conservation and economic growth can be compatible with each other, without jeopardizing social welfare. Finally, the analysis shows that the discussion of sustain-ability models cannot be restricted to the explicit differences that are usually pointed out by their authors and commentators. Rather, implicit assumptions must be made explicit. [source]