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Tol, RichardS.J. (2013). Climate policy with Bentham-Rawls preferences Economics Letters, 118(3):424--428.

  • Journal
    Economics Letters
View publication

A Bentham-Rawls welfare function is the weighted sum of the net present welfare (Bentham) and the welfare of the worst-off generation (Rawls). If utility is non-decreasing over time, optimal climate policy is more stringent in the near-term under the Bentham criterion than under the Bentham-Rawls criterion. If utility is decreasing, Bentham-Rawls abatement is higher. If there is a chance of decreasing utility, Bentham-Rawls optimal climate policy is probably less stringent than Bentham policy.