@techreport{7ffad5862c274214b62f1616a40e3492,
title = "Second-Best National Saving and Growth with Intergenerational Disagreement",
abstract = "We illustrate the contrast between two sources of intergenerational disagreement when generations are overlapping and governments aggregate preferences in a utilitarian manner. Social preferences tend to exhibit a present-bias because generations are imperfectly altruistic about future generations; but they tend to exhibit a future-bias because coexisting generations are imperfectly altruistic about currently older generations. When the future-bias dominates, society faces an intergenerational equity problem, in which case the present-day government tends to support institutions that enable commitments to lower growth at the expense of future generations. This is so even with perfect altruism about future generations.",
keywords = "intergenerational disagreement, altruism, overlapping generations, growth, quasi-hyperbolic discounting, commitment",
author = "F.M. Gonzalez and I. Lazkano and Smulders, {Sjak A.}",
year = "2014",
month = mar,
language = "English",
volume = "14-003",
series = "Waterloo Economics Series",
publisher = "University of Waterloo",
address = "Canada",
type = "WorkingPaper",
institution = "University of Waterloo",
}