Impacts of declining discount rates on optimal harvest age and land expectation values

Several national governments now require the discount rate for public projects with long planning horizons to decrease over the life of a project. Theoretical results that characterize the impacts of a declining discount rate on optimal harvest age and land expectation values in the Faustmann Model are presented. New results include: derivation of conditions for a sequences of optimal harvest ages and land expectation values, comparative statics results, conditions that must be satisfied for multiple optima, and proof that harvesting is never optimal immediately before a discrete decrease in the discount rate.