Callender, Craig (2023) Temporal Neutrality Implies Exponential Temporal Discounting. Philosophy of Science, 90 (5).

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Abstract

How should one discount utility across time? The conventional wisdom in social science is that one should use an exponential discount function. Such a function is a representation of the axioms that provide a well-defined utility function plus a condition known as stationarity. Yet stationarity doesn’t really have much intuitive normative pull on its own. Here I try to cast it in a normative glow by deriving stationarity from two explicitly normative premises, both suggested by the philosophical thesis of temporal neutralism. Putting the argument in this form helps us better understand exponential discounting and challenges to it.

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Item Type:	Published Article or Volume
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Callender, Craig ccallender@ucsd.edu 0000-0002-9192-0018
Keywords:	temporal discounting time rationality temporal neutrality time decision theory economics
Subjects:	General Issues > Decision Theory Specific Sciences > Economics General Issues > Science and Policy
Depositing User:	Craig Callender
Date Deposited:	12 Sep 2024 12:53
Last Modified:	12 Sep 2024 12:53
Item ID:	23907
Journal or Publication Title:	Philosophy of Science
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Official URL:	https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/philosophy...
DOI or Unique Handle:	https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2023.36
Subjects:	General Issues > Decision Theory Specific Sciences > Economics General Issues > Science and Policy
Date:	December 2023
Volume:	90
Number:	5
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/23907

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