Because of difficulties measuring pollution, many prior papers suggest a subsidy to some observable method of reducing pollution. We take three such papers as examples, and we extend each of them to show how welfare under the suggested subsidy can be increased by the addition of an output tax....

Because of difficulties measuring pollution, many prior papers suggest a subsidy to some observable method of reducing pollution. We take three papers from the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management as examples, and we extend them to make an additional important point. In each case,...

Research about the circular economy is dominated by engineers, architects, and social scientists in fields other than economics. The concepts they study can be useful in economic models of policies - to reduce virgin materials extraction, to encourage green design, and to make better use of...

We summarize the economics of recycling municipal solid waste. OECD data suggest that aggregate recycling rates in member countries have plateaued in recent decades. United States recycling rates for some materials remain low, even after decades of learning and participation. Major new policies...

Using data from the 1999–2002 Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey, the authors investigate the relationship between job satisfaction and high-involvement work practices such as quality circles, feedback, suggestion programs, and task teams. They consider the direction of causality,...

The Porter Hypothesis argues that environmental regulations benefit firms by fostering innovation. We discuss four examples consistent with this idea, highlighting either the distribution of benefits or costs, or the presence of some additional distortion, other than pollution. Examples are...

This study uses panel data on Canadian establishments to explore the relationship between the organization of work - in particular decentralization, information-sharing, and incentive pay schemes - and innovation. Like other studies, ours finds a clear positive link between these factors....