How to aggregate experts' discount rates: An equilibrium approach

We address the problem of a social planner who, as in Weitzman, (2001), gathers data on experts' discount rates and wants to infer the social consumption discount rate. We propose an equilibrium approach and we analyze the expression and the properties of the resulting equilibrium discount rate. We analyze the impact of shifts in the distribution of experts' discount rates on the shape of the yield curve. Finally, we apply our approach to Weitzman's (2001) data to propose discount rates for public sector cost–benefit analysis, in particular for the long term.