Time preferences are a dominant influence in cost-benefit analyses of long-term issues such as climate change. FUND, a model for optimal emission control, is used to spell out this influence. Classic discounting at various rates is contrasted with Heal discounting where the discount factor depends logarithmically on the time distance (it does linearly in the classic case), and Rabl discounting ...

Existing episodic reinforcement algorithms assume that the length of an episode is fixed across time and known a priori. In this paper, we consider general framework learning when each drawn from distribution. We first establish problem equivalent to online with discounting where learner trying optimize expected discounted sum rewards over infinite horizon, but function not necessarily geometri...

The paper surveys over twenty models of delay discounting (also known as temporal discounting, time preference, time discounting), that psychologists and economists have put forward to explain the way people actually trade off time and money. Using little more than the basic algebra of powers and logarithms, I show how the models are derived, what assumptions they are based upon, and how differ...

The possibility of non-constant discounting is important in environmental and resource management problems where current decisions affect welfare in the far-distant future, as with climate change. The difficulty of analyzing models with non-constant discounting limits their application. We describe and provide software to implement an algorithm to numerically obtain a Markov Perfect Equilibrium...

Conventional Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) tends to show that most ecosystem restoration programs are not worthwhile in economic terms. This is because discounting significantly reduces future net benefits from restoration, since benefits are discounted using the time perspective (i.e., the discounting clock) of the current generation only. I propose the use of what is termed Generational CBA, wh...

The Transferable Belief Model is a general framework for managing imprecise and uncertain information using belief functions. In this framework, the discounting operation allows to combine information provided by a source (in the form of a belief function) with metaknowledge regarding the reliability of that source, to compute a “weakened”, less informative belief function. In this article, an ...

Conventional Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) tends to show that most ecosystem restoration programs are not worthwhile in economic terms. This is because discounting significantly reduces future net benefits from restoration, since benefits are discounted using the time perspective (i.e., the discounting clock) of the current generation only. I propose the use of what is termed Generational CBA, wh...

This paper extends a conventional discounting scheme commonly used with the Dempster-Shafer evidential reasoning to deal with conflict. The extended discounting scheme is able to augment, discount, and oppose existing evidence structures when discounting factors take values in different ranges. To show its effectiveness, the scheme is employed for detecting multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions based...

We derive a representation theorem for time preferences (on the prize-time space) which identifies a novel notion of relative discounting as the key ingredient. This representation covers a variety of time preference models, including the standard exponential and hyperbolic discounting models and certain nontransitive time preferences, such as the similarity-based and subadditive discounting mo...

Cash flows are often modeled using the random geometric growth model (geometric Brownian motion). One of the reasons for using this model is that it is simple to implement and it is a reasonable approximation to random growth cash flows such as stock prices. For this model the volatility of the cash flow grows multiplicatively over time. This multiplicative characteristic is shared by the usual...