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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Do people favour policies that protect future generations?
— Evidence from a British survey of adults | | Author(s) | Hilary Graham, Martin Bland, Richard Cookson |
| Journal title | Journal of Social Policy, vol 46, no 3, July 2017 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, July 2017 |
| Pages | pp 423-445 |
| Source | cambridge.org/JSP |
| Keywords | Health services ; Health [elderly] ; Physical environment ; Floods ; Social policy ; Attitude ; Older people ; Adults ; Social surveys ; United Kingdom. |
| Annotation | Long-range temporal choices are built into contemporary policy-making, with policy decisions having consequences that play out across generations. Decisions are made on behalf of the public who are assumed to give much greater weight to their welfare than to the welfare of future generations. Researchers at the University of York investigate this assumption. They briefly discuss evidence from sociological and economic studies, before reporting the findings of a British survey of people's intergenerational time preferences based on a representative sample of nearly 10,000 respondents (the Health of Populations and Ecosystems, or HOPE project, funded by the ESRC). Questions focused on two sets of policies: (i) health policies to save lives; and (ii) environmental policies to protect against floods that would severely damage homes, businesses and other infrastructure. For both sets of policies, participants were offered a choice of three policy options, each bringing greater or lesser benefits to their, their children's and their grandchildren's generations. For both saving lives and protecting against floods, only a minority selected the policy that most benefited their generation; the majority selected policies bringing equal or greater benefits to future generations. The study raises questions about a core assumption of standard economic evaluation, pointing instead to concern for future generations as a value that many people hold in common. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-170728200 A |
| Classmark | L: CC: R: RGL: TM2: DP: B: SD: 3F: 8 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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