PhD ceremony Mr. M.B.Y. Parouty: Inequality aversion to posterity. Discounting human lives
| When: | Fr 13-09-2013 at 16:15 |
PhD ceremony: Mr. M.B.Y. Parouty, 16.15 uur, Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen
Dissertation: Inequality aversion to posterity. Discounting human lives
Promotor(s): prof. M.J. Postma
Faculty: Mathematics and Natural Sciences
The discount rate for health needs not equal the discount rate for costs, concludes Mehraj Parouty in his thesis. ‘The fact that we devalue the lives of our descendants has raised abundant ethical debates during the past few decades. Economists are saying that, because we value the present more than the future, this should not exclude anything; not even human lives.’ In an attempt to bring ethics in symphony with economics, the thesis of Parouty proposes that our decisions depend on what we aspire for.