Intergenerational Policy Evaluation

Intergenerational Policy Evaluation

In this project we evaluate several policies from an intergenerational fairness point of view. A policy is fair to all generations if: it allows people of all ages to meet their needs; meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. On the other hand, a policy is considered unfair if it does not satisfy at least one of the following conditions:

  • Disadvantage people at any specific stage of their life;
  • Disadvantage any generation, current or future;
  • Strengths the transmission of inequality through generations;
  • Restricts the choices of future generations;
  • Moves society away from its vision for the future.

We depart from the methodology developed by SOIF & Gulbenkian and propose changes to make it more quantitative and objective. The methodology includes five flexible stages:

  1. Diagnostic: Captures key information about the policy, evaluates its fairness, and builds a timeline of short, medium and long-term effects.
  2. Impact: Explores chains of intended and unintended impacts on generations over time, using available quantitative data.
  3. Scenarios: Tests the baseline evaluation against alternative scenarios.
  4. Process: Examines how the policy was designed and enacted, namely if intergenerational issues were considered.
  5. Conclusions: Summarises the findings and recommendations.

Project Outputs