Hi Nathan, I think it is a log function (most likely natural log, but could have been shorthand for some other base).
People often use this when figuring out benefits of gdp, consumption growth etc (eg, I think Givewell assumes that a doubling of wealth is ~ equally good no matter what the baseline wealth is).
The approximate reasoning for this is that we expect there to be diminishing marginal returns to wealth per capita, and there is some weak empirical evidence that a log function specifically fits the data reasonably well.
Hi Nathan, I think it is a log function (most likely natural log, but could have been shorthand for some other base).
People often use this when figuring out benefits of gdp, consumption growth etc (eg, I think Givewell assumes that a doubling of wealth is ~ equally good no matter what the baseline wealth is).
The approximate reasoning for this is that we expect there to be diminishing marginal returns to wealth per capita, and there is some weak empirical evidence that a log function specifically fits the data reasonably well.