Arbeitspapier

Climate change and the irreversibility effect: combining expected utility and MaxiMin

This paper analyzes decisions on emissions of a stock pollutant under uncertainty in a two period model. Decisions are based on a weighted average of expected utility (EU) and the MaxiMin criterion. I first show that more weight on the worst case (less weight on EU) may lead to increased first period emissions. The effect of learning possibilities on emissions is not clear in general, but depends qualitatively on the weight given to MaxiMin: For the quadratic utility case, considering prospective learning increases today?s abatement effort, i.e. the ?irreversibility effect? holds, if the weight on EU is small. This contrasts standard results on the irreversibility effect for EU which translates to small weights on MaxiMin. There is, however, the possibility of a negative value of learning. It is shown that the irreversibility effect holds if and only if the value of learning is negative. Consequences for the applicability of generalized EU-MaxiMin are discussed.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: ZEW Discussion Papers ; No. 02-29

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
Welfare Economics: General
Thema
uncertainty
MaxiMin
irreversibility
learning
Luftverunreinigung
Klimaveränderung
Entscheidung bei Unsicherheit
Zeitpräferenz
Erwartungsnutzen
Lernprozeß
Theorie

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Lange, Andreas
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW)
(wo)
Mannheim
(wann)
2002

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ

Datenpartner

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Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Lange, Andreas
  • Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW)

Entstanden

  • 2002

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