Discounting costs and effects: a reconsideration
使用一个给予当代和未来世代同等权重的简单社会效用函数，推导出成本和效果需要基于预期收入增长和消费边际效用、预期健康增长和健康边际效用分别折现，并质疑了完美市场假设，重新审视了传统的不一致性论点。
Using a simple societal utility function--giving equal weight to current and future generations-it is concluded that costs need to be discounted on the basis of the expected increase in income and the marginal utility of consumption, and that effects need to be discounted on the basis of the expected increase in health and the marginal utility of health. It is derived that both rates need to be equal when assuming a kind of perfect market, where growth rates are determined by the societal utility function. It is argued that this is an extremely heroic assumption and that different discount rates may be needed. Additionally, the traditional 'inconsistency arguments' of Weinstein and Stason and of Keeler and Cretin are reconsidered. Within the context presented earlier, the first inconsistency only emerges when a growth equilibrium is assumed, reinforcing the arguments put forward before. The Keeler and Cretin paradox is reconsidered by showing that absolutely no paradox emerges when programs are not supposed to stop after a year but are supposed to continue indefinitely. The conclusion is drawn that non-believers in market mechanisms assuring an optimal social policy, need to reconsider the use of their discount rates.