Generous Sustainability
25 Pages Posted: 11 Dec 2014
Date Written: November 30, 2014
Abstract
I define “generous sustainability” as a combination of two conditions: neither instantaneous maximin income nor attainable maximin income should decrease over time. I provide a formal definition and study applications to an AK economy, a Ramsey economy, and a Climate Economy. Generosity is shown to impose substantially stronger conditions on current actions compared to existing sustainability concepts. As a rule of thumb, generosity requires that GHG emissions are limited to levels that do not cause irreversible system damages if some group of people systematically value these systems.
Keywords: intertemporal choice and growth, intergenerational distribution, sustainable development
JEL Classification: D630, D900, Q010
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation