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On the Use of the Term "Self-Interest" in Economics
Thursday, June 26, 2008 1:12 AM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] I've been repeatedly embroiled in an argument for the last few weeks over the term "self-interest" as it is used in economic discussion, and I wanted to hammer out my position once and for all so that I don't have to keep trying to start from the beginning. Here's the deal. I am told that within the discipline... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 3 comment(s)

Filed under: Economics

Cap and Trade vs. the Carbon Tax
Friday, June 13, 2008 5:09 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] So I've been addressing the issue of anthropogenic climate change for some time now, and I haven't said much in the way of addressing specific policy proposals. But I was just given a delightful present by one of my fellow FEE associates: a copy of the American Institute for Economic Research's latest Economic Education... Read More...

by Donny with an A | with no comments

Filed under: Justice, Climate Change, Appropriation and Environmentalism, Economics, Emergent Problems, Compensation

Can the Free Market Solve the Problems Posed by Climate Change?
Thursday, March 20, 2008 5:22 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] When confronted by the possibility of climate change, many libertarians default to the position that the free market, with its ability to mobilize the ingenuity of the economy for the satisfaction of the desires of the people, will provide the solutions we desire. I want to discuss this view, because I think it is the result... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 4 comment(s)

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Climate Change, Appropriation and Environmentalism, Economics

Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 5:21 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] So as I said earlier , I've been getting involved in a whole bunch of debates involving value theory, and I wanted to sketch out a few of my views in order to have a starting point for discussion, so I don't have to keep explaining myself over and over again. In this post, I want to address the idea that because there... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 1 comment(s)

Filed under: Economics

The Subjectivity of Value
Friday, March 14, 2008 4:47 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] For some reason, the past few weeks have found me embroiled in more debates about value theory than I can remember in the past year. Accordingly, I figured I'd post something on the subject as a starting point for those debates, so that I don't have to repeat my entire view in every conversation. The problems people... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 2 comment(s)

Filed under: Intrinsic Value, Economics

Asymmetry Between Positive and Negative Externalities
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 4:27 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] I want to discuss an asymmetry between positive and negative externalities which I think might be important when thinking about how to use the enforcement of justice to determine which actions should be permitted. Sometimes, we let individuals impose costs on others, provided compensation is payed, because their actions produce... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 12 comment(s)

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Economics

Monetary Compensation for Future Generations
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 2:03 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] I've been talking a lot about whether or not we could have obligations to future people, and it occurred to me that I should say something about what it would mean for us to have those obligations, if we did have them. For example, let's say (as I discussed here ) that it is wrong to act in such a way that a person comes... Read More...

by Donny with an A | with no comments

Filed under: Justice, Economics

Cost-Benefit Analysis in Light of the Non-Identity Problem
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 11:48 AM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] So earlier I wrote about the role played by discounting in doing cost-benefit analyses on the impacts of climate change. I concluded that discounting of future damage is unethical because it treats future people as if their interests matter less than present people's. But recently, I've also been discussing the implications... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 5 comment(s)

Filed under: Justice, Discounting, Climate Change, The Non-Identity Problem, Economics

Does the Fact that Individuals Discount Entail the Existence of a Social Discount Rate?
Friday, February 15, 2008 4:09 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] In my last post , I discussed the idea of discounting as it relates to cost-benefit analysis. I reached the conclusion that discounting treats future people's interests as if they were less significant than our own, and that if cost-benefit analysis aims to make people the best off, then this seems like a bad practice. I... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 5 comment(s)

Filed under: Justice, Equality, Discounting, Climate Change, Economics

Cost-Benefit Analysis, Discounting, and Climate Change
Thursday, February 14, 2008 10:29 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] I wrote a paper last semester on the notion of discounting future damage (I'll explain what this means below), and I wanted to revisit the issue now that I've done a little more research, to see if I still agree with what I wrote then. Basically, my paper examined how our views of the proper role of discounting are dependent... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 1 comment(s)

Filed under: Justice, Equality, Discounting, Climate Change, Economics