Estimates the expected present discounted value (EPDV) of future payouts on both immediate and deferred annuities are sensitive to the discount rate used to value future payment streams and assumptions about future mortality rates. This paper illustrates this with respect to annuities that were...

The valuation of financial derivatives often assumes a risk-neutral attitude that guarantees that all gains and losses cancel out on average, but the losses could still be substantial in some realizations of the underlying asset’s prices. In this study, we propose a new pricing framework that...

Per the National Academy of Sciences’ 2017 recommendations, the social cost of carbon (SCC) is now calculated with a modular framework in which researchers can easily substitute different models for estimating climate damages. The modular approach is an improvement from previous practice, but...

We surveyed economists’ attitudes toward adjusting discount rates to the risk profile of public programs. Three-quarters of respondents recommend to use project-specific discount rates. For example, on average, respondents discount railway infrastructures more than hospitals and climate...