Government analysts have long used discount rates based on investment rates of return to approximate the effect of capital displacement. However, we show how this approach is not well grounded in economic theory and produces highly biased results, particularly in the context of decisions...

Costs and benefits in the distant future, such as those associated with global warming, long-lived infrastructure, hazardous and radioactive waste, and biodiversity often have little value today when measured with conventional discount rates. We demonstrate that when the future path of this...