Alert programs are central to strategies to reduce the health impacts of air pollution in many jurisdictions. Evidence that they work, however, is sparse - indeed the majority of published studies fail to find a significant impact of alerts on behavior. Alerts particularly seek to influence...

This study evaluates the implications of an actual carbon tax on the international competitiveness of the agricultural sector. Applying uniformly to all fossil fuels combusted within its borders, the province of British Columbia unilaterally introduced a carbon tax on July 1, 2008. Using...

We demonstrate that the carbon tax imposed by the Canadian province of British Columbia, a unique carbon pricing policy that comprehensively applies to all fossil fuels, caused a decline in short-run gasoline demand that is significantly greater than would be expected from an equivalent increase...

Individuals dominate money in politics, accounting for over 90% of campaign contributions, but studies of individuals’ giving are scarce. We show that individuals increase their personal contributions dramatically when they assume leadership roles at organizations such as labor unions,...

Dissenting votes in parliamentary systems are overt displays of defiance by individual Members of Parliament (MPs) vis-à-vis their parties. Dissension is particularly surprising as in the vast majority of situations voting against one's party yields no change in legislative outcomes while still...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between regulatory changes, returns on equity and stock market valuations for Canadian food and non-food agribusinesses. Design/methodology/approach – Two empirical approaches are employed. First, an event study is used...

"AgriStability is the primary Canadian agricultural risk management program. Recent experience with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the cattle sector demonstrated that output prices are susceptible to both "normal" risk and sudden, "catastrophic" declines. This paper evaluates the...

Individuals dominate money in politics, accounting for over 90 percent of campaign contributions, yet studies of drivers of individuals? giving are scarce. We analyze data on all contributions made between 1991 and 2008 by all 1,556 people who became S&P 500 CEOs during that interval. We exploit...

We show that imposition of a state-level environmental tax in a federation crowds out preexisting federal taxes. We explain how this vertical fiscal externality can lead unilateral state-level environmental policy to generate a welfare gain in the implementing state, at the expense of other...

We assess the extent to which subsidies for home energy efficiency improvements in Canada have been paid to households that would have undertaken the improvements anyway – the so-called free rider rate. We focus on forced-air natural gas furnaces, replaced between April 1, 2007 and March 31,...