Faculty of Business and Law
SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTING, ECONOMICS AND FINANCE
School Working Paper - Economic Series 2006
SWP 2006/26
ESTIMATING INTERGENERATIONAL DISTRIBUTION
PREFERENCES USING CHOICE MODELLING
Helen Scarborough & Jeff Bennett
The working papers are a series of manuscripts in their draft form. Please do not quote without
obtaining the author’s consent as these works are in their draft form. The views expressed in this
paper are those of the author and not necessarily endorsed by the School.
ESTIMATING INTERGENERATIONAL DISTRIBUTION
PREFERENCES USING CHOICE MODELLING
Helen Scarborough*
School of Accounting Economics and Finance,
Faculty of Business and Law
Deakin University,
Warrnambool, Vic. 3280 Australia
email: scars@deakin.edu.au
Jeff Bennett
Crawford School of Economics and Government
ANU College of Asia & the Pacific
The Australian National University
Canberra, ACT 0200 Australia
email: Jeff.Bennett@anu.edu.au
ABSTRACT
Resource management decisions influence not only the output of the economy but also the
distribution of utility between groups within the community. The theory of Cost Benefit
Analysis provides a means of incorporating distributional changes into the decision making
calculus through the application of distributional or welfare weights. This paper reports the
results of research designed to estimate distributional weights suitable for inclusion in a
Cost Benefit Analysis framework. The findings of a choice modelling experiment designed
to estimate community preferences with respect to intergenerational utility distribution are
presented.
JEL classification codes: Q56, C35, D61
Keywords: Distributional weights, Cost benefit analysis,
Intergenerational
distribution, Choice modelling.
*Corresponding author contact details Ph: +61 3 55633547, Fax: +61 3 55633320
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ESTIMATING INTERGENERATIONAL DISTRIBUTION PREFERENCES
USING CHOICE MODELLING
ABSTRACT
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