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Life as a Trust Game: a comment on The Option Value of Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2021

Gregory Ponthiere Open the ORCID record for Gregory Ponthiere [Opens in a new window]
Gregory Ponthiere*
Affiliation:
UCLouvain, Hoover Chair in Economic and Social Ethics, 3 Place Montesquieu, 1348Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

According to Burri (2020), a major reason why suicide is often irrational lies in the option value of life. Remaining alive is valuable because this allows for a larger menu of options, and the possibility of committing suicide in the future adds further value to the act of remaining alive now. In this note, I represent life as a trust game played by two selves – the young self and the old self – and I argue that the possibility to commit suicide in the future can encourage committing suicide now, against what the theory of the option value of life predicts.

Keywords

value of lifesuicideoption valuetrust gamemultiple selves
Type
Reply
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , July 2022 , pp. 300 - 308
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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