🧵🧵New paper w/ @zdgroff on the social discount rate and how policy should trade off costs and benefits for future generations.

TLDR: Contrary to standard cost-benefit analysis practice, people discount future generation's welfare far less than their own The social discount rate is central to policy evaluation whenever we have intergenerational stakes- the social cost of carbon, R&D funding, deficits. The gap between low and high discount rates can flip cost-benefit conclusions entirely