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Sustainability as Intergenerational Fairness: Efficiency, Uncertainty, and Numerical Methods
Author(s) -
Woodward Richard T.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.1111/0002-9092.00048
Subject(s) - sustainability , obligation , economics , range (aeronautics) , microeconomics , mathematical optimization , environmental economics , computer science , mathematics , political science , engineering , law , ecology , biology , aerospace engineering
This paper presents an economic model of sustainability defined as intergenerational fairness. Assuming that intergenerational fairness is an obligation of each generation, a recursive optimization problem is obtained. The problem has the advantage that uncertainty can readily be incorporated in the model and it can be solved numerically for a wide range of specifications. The possibility of trade‐offs between efficiency and sustainability are discussed. Under plausible conditions, it is shown that a sustainability obligation is met only if there is the expectation of economic growth.