Discounting Future Green: Money Vs. The Environment

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Vol. 138, No. 3, pp. 329-340, 2009

52 Pages Posted: 15 Aug 2009

See all articles by David J. Hardisty

David J. Hardisty

University of British Columbia (UBC) - Division of Marketing

Elke U. Weber

Princeton University - Department of Psychology

Date Written: August 13, 2009

Abstract

In three studies, participants made choices between hypothetical financial, environmental, and health gains and losses that took effect either immediately or with a delay of 1 or 10 years. In all three domains, choices indicated that gains were discounted more than losses. There were no significant differences in the discounting of monetary and environmental outcomes, but health gains were discounted more and health losses were discounted less than gains or losses in the other two domains. Correlations between implicit discount rates for these different choices suggest that discount rates are influenced more by the valence of outcomes (gains vs. losses) than by domain (money, environment, or health). Overall, results indicate that when controlling as many factors as possible, at short to medium delays, environmental outcomes are discounted in a similar way to financial outcomes, which is good news for researchers and policy makers alike.

Keywords: temporal discounting, intertemporal choice, environment, health, money

Suggested Citation

Hardisty, David J. and Weber, Elke U., Discounting Future Green: Money Vs. The Environment (August 13, 2009). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Vol. 138, No. 3, pp. 329-340, 2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1448825

David J. Hardisty (Contact Author)

University of British Columbia (UBC) - Division of Marketing ( email )

Canada

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.sauder.ubc.ca/people/david-hardisty

Elke U. Weber

Princeton University - Department of Psychology

Green Hall
Princeton, NJ 08540
United States

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