Objective
Decisions about climate change, pension systems and other long-term issues affect not only the present but also future generations. Among the difficult questions raised by such intergenerational decisions, the following stands out as particularly controversial: how can the method of time discounting be applied to intergenerational decisions? In an intergenerational context, time discounting is the method of weighting costs and benefits to future generations less than those to the present one. This method is widely employed in public policy decisions with a large time-scale. Famously, there is widespread disagreement about intergenerational discounting, in particular about its social scientific foundations and its conceptual and ethical justification. This project in the philosophy of economics seeks to develop sound foundations for intergenerational discounting by employing approaches in measurement theory from philosophy of science, such as the representational theory of measurement. The project asks what kind of qualitative concepts a discounting factor expresses and under which conditions it is well founded.
The proposed research has four objectives. Firstly, the project will provide general axiomatic foundations for intergenerational discounting, outlining the conditions that have to be met in order to establish discounting factors. Secondly, the project will assess conceptual motivations for intergenerational discounting that have been put forward in the literature on the social discount rate on the basis of the general axiomatic foundations, such as those that appeal to pure time preference, uncertainty, and the growth rate. Thirdly, the project will examine to what extent a distinction between facts and values can be upheld in intergenerational discounting, determining the scope of value-free discounting. Fourthly, these results will be applied to the current debates in economics and public policy about intergenerational discounting and climate change.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences political sciences political policies public policies
- social sciences economics and business economics
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion philosophy
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MC-CIG - Support for training and career development of researcher (CIG)
Coordinator
3062 PA Rotterdam
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.