THE DISCOUNTING OF LIVES SAVED IN FUTURE GENERATIONS - SOME EMPIRICALRESULTS

The aim of this note is to estimate the discount rates that individual s in the present generation in Sweden use to discount lives saved in f uture generations at different points in time. A binary survey questio n, where individuals choose between saving lives in their own generati on versus saving lives in future generations, was administered in a ge neral population sample of 850 individuals. Three time horizons of 20, 50 and 100 years were used in three different subsamples. Logistic re gression analysis was used to estimate the discount rate. The estimate d annual discount rate is 25% for the 20 year time horizon, 12% for th e 50 year time horizon and 8% for the 100 year time horizon.