ZAŁOŻENIA UTYLITARYZMU W OCENIE EFEKTYWNOŚCI INWESTYCJI MIĘDZYPOKOLENIOWYCH.

The paper analyses three basic features of utilitarianism: welfarism, sum-ranking and consequentialism which form the theoretical basis for economic net present value (costbenefit analysis decision criterion) for appraisal of intergenerational investments. The results show that the features are not theoretically sufficient due to inexistence of future generations' preferences, inability to apply Kaldor-Hicks potential compensation test and to assign future generations existence value. The paper suggests possible modifications of cost-benefit analysis to overcome the utilitarian failures, i.e. time-declining discount rate and introduction of deontological assumptions allowing to include present generation's altruistic preferences toward unborn people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]