Randall M Wigle

Wilfrid Laurier University | WLU · Department of Economics

Support programs for renewable electricity generation in Ontario have been in place since 2005, including feed-in-tariffs and a competitive procurement process. These programs have been criticized on a number of fronts. In particular, critics claim the level of support was excessive and creating surplus supply. However, prior studies have ignored o...

Dividing the burden for greenhouse gas abatement among the provinces has proven challenging in Canada and contributes to Canada's failure to limit emissions. This paper uses a computable general equilibrium model to compare a number of rules for sharing the burden of emission reductions among Canadian provinces. Because of the substantial heterogen...

This study investigates the distributional implications of the revenue-neutral carbon tax policy in British Columbia. We use a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Canadian economy and disaggregate households into deciles by annual income using data from a large household expenditure survey. Using the model, we find that the existing B...

This study investigates the distributional implications of the revenue-neutral carbon tax policy in British Columbia. We use a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Canadian economy and disaggregate households into deciles by annual income using data from a large household expenditure survey. Using the model, we find that the existing B...

Dividing the burden for greenhouse gas abatement amongst the provinces has proven challenging in Canada, and is a major factor contributing to Canada’s poor historic performance on greenhouse gas abatement. As the country aims to achieve substantial cuts to emissions over the next decade and by mid-century, such burden sharing considerations are li...

Policy makers justify renewable energy promotion policies partly on the grounds that such policies have positive employment impacts. We apply a computable general equilibrium model to assess the labour market impacts of the feed-in tariff policy used by the Government of Ontario. We find that although the policy is successful at increasing the empl...

would like to thank, without implicating, Someshwar Rao and Paul Monfils for This paper reconsiders the consequences of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol in light of recent events using MRT-C, a CGE model focussed on Canadian Kyoto compliance. The paper focuses on Canada again and stresses the trade dimension of Kyoto compliance. Copeland and Taylor (20...

This paper reviews the re-emergence of delays as a source of concern at the Canada-US border. We reassess their economic impacts in light of new economic research and conduct model-based numerical simulations to estimate the regional composition of trade impacts and welfare costs within Canada. We find ample reason for concern about the re-emergenc...

Market impacts of technological change in Canadian agriculture are measured within a computable general equilibrium framework using 2001 input-output data with agriculture disaggregated to six sectors and 13 commodities. Technological change is modeled as productivity rises in the use of intermediate inputs and of primary factors. Impacts on output...

This paper provides a quantitative assessment of the welfare costs of border delays as a result of recent increases in post 9/11 se- curity measures. Although bilateral trade with the United States ranks high in both volumes and political context, we widen our scope by considering border delays in trade with all countries in the rest of the world....

Presents some estimates of the consequences of Uruguay Round liberalisation based on a global trade model developed for this purpose. We analyse two possible conclusions of the Uruguay Round: a "comprehensive' outcome with major reforms in all areas under negotiation and a modest "face-saving' outcome with enough of an agreement to preserve some se...

This paper evaluates the impact of BSE-related trade restrictions on Canada using a general equilibrium model. It links selected results of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) approach, a global computable general equilibrium model, with Basic Model of Regional Trade (BMRT), a Canadian regional model. We find first, that while producers were h...

This chapter develops a numerical general equilibrium model of the world economy with local and global environmental externalities. The model is then used to investigate the relationship between trade and the environment. Our results suggest that international trade has little impact on environmental quality. Furthermore, the magnitude of the welfa...

Recent literature has explored both physical and policy linkage between trade and environment. Here we explore linkage through leverage in bargaining, whereby developed countries can use trade policy threats to achieve improved developing country environmental management, while developing countries can use environmental concessions to achieve trade...

This paper examines the choice between alternative trade-based approaches to reducing global environmental damage, such as trade-related process standards and tariff-based approaches. Estimates of the effects of alternative policies are presented, using a calibrated global trade model with pollution externalities. It is found that both trade-relate...

In this chapter we present some preliminary and illustrative calculations of the consequences of trade sanctions against low-income countries. The main theme is that the impact of actions against low labour standards (or poor enforcement) have the unintended effect of depressing wages, particularly if actions are focused on labour-intensive sectors...

This book, drawn from the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP), aims to help readers conduct quantitative analysis of international trade issues in an economy-wide framework. In addition to providing a succinct introduction to the GTAP modelling framework and data base, this book contains seven of the most refined GTAP applications undertaken to da...

Cet article offre une évaluation des impacts possibles du "Final Act" de l'Uruguay Round, en prêtant une attention particulière au Canada. Nos deux principaux résultats peuvent être résumées comme suit: premièrement, les impacts estimés de l'Uruguay Round sont plus modestes que les résultats précédents; notre deuxième résultat concerne la libéralis...

This paper develops a numerical general equilibrium model of the world economy with local and global environmental externalities. The model is then used to investigate the relationship between trade and the environment. The authors' results suggest that international trade has little impact on environmental quality. Furthermore, the magnitude of th...

In this paper, the impact of removing all Tunisian tariffs on imports from the EU, while maintaining protection on imports from the rest of the world, is evaluated using computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. Both competitive and Cournot oligopolistic commodities market structures with and without barriers to entry and exit are considered. It...

This paper attempts to shed some light on what the incentives are for international participation in 'sub-global' carbon reduction initiatives. We use a six-region global general equilibrium trade and carbon emission model recently used by Whalley and Wigle to analyze the international incidence effects of various global carbon tax schemes. Here we...

This paper forms part of an OECD project which addresses the issue of the costs of reducing CO2 emissions by comparing the results from six global models of a set of standardised reduction scenarios. The paper provides evidence on; i) projected carbon dioxide emissions through the next century, and ii) the carbon taxes and output costs entailed in...

This paper presents a computable general equilibrium world trade model with imperfectly competitive industries in all countries which can be used to evaluate trade liberalisation proposals. We find that the welfare gains from worldwide trade liberalisation can be as much as twice those obtained from models with constant returns to scale and perfect...

Outlines some arguments about the role of transportation costs in determining the welfare consequences of trade restrictions. The analysis uses a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and presents the relevant features for trade analysis. The model has two alternative spatial formulations. In the first, all production and trade occur at one po...

This paper applies a simple approximation procedure to the calculation of systematic sensitivity results for a well-known computable general equilibrium model. The approximation (based on Pagan and Shannon (1985)) is found to be very accurate and requires little computing time.

This paper documents the economic structure, functional forms, and aggregation details of three variants of Whalley's computable general equilibrium model of global trade.

This paper documents the economic structure, functional forms, and aggregation details of three variants of Whalley's computable general equilibrium model of global trade.

This paper applies a simple approximation procedure to the calculation of systematic sensitivity results for a well-known computable general equilibrium model. The approximation (based on Pagan and Shannon (1985)) is found to be very accurate and requires little computing time.

This paper starts from the premise that attempts to curtail global emissions of greenhouse gases are likely to be made in the next few decades. We discuss some of the possible international effects which could result from attempts to achieve such a cutback, and illustrate a methodology which we hope to extend, in subsequent work, to further evaluat...

This paper argues that conditionality associated with government support programs makes the assessment of their capitalization effects more treacherous than conventionally believed. In the case of the U.S. wheat program, for instance, there is less than full participation by farmers. Participating producers must set aside a specified fraction of th...

Much of the recent literature on scale economies has been motivated by the large volume of trade among the industrialized countries relative to "North-South" trade. This paper presents theoretical and empirical analyses of two alternative hypotheses, one based on differences in North versus South GNP and one based on higher protection levels in the...

Evaluates the implications for developing countries of alternative possible liberalizations involving wheat, emphasizing both unilateral and multilateral liberalization experiments involving the US. Shows that models with endogenous participation in set-aside programmes seem to produce results that are the opposite of conventional thinking as regar...

A theoretical analysis of "optimal" (Nash equilibrium) tariff rates is presented. A numerical general equilibrium model is then used to find Nash equilibrium tariff rates for the United States and Canada. The Nash equilibrium tariffs are small relative to partial equilibrium estimates: 18 percent for the United States and 6 percent for Canada. The...

This paper analyzes the effects of Canada-U.S. trade liberalization using a revised version of the global trade model due to J. Whalley (1986). The model incorpora tes scale features similar to those in R. G. Harris and D. Cox (1984). The evaluated effects of bilateral free trade are significantly dif ferent than those of Harris and Cox, and the pa...

This paper argues that a price wedge treatment of agricultural supports can seriously misrepresent their welfare and quantity effects. We make our point by focusing on pre-1985 US wheat programs, but features of programs in many other countries lead to comparable problems with the ad valorem approach. This line of argument raises questions over the...

This paper contains a brief summary of the nature of domestic policies and international agreements in agriculture, and an outline of a simple computable gene ral equilibrium model of the grain market. Preliminary results presen ted here suggest that the gains from global liberalization in agricul ture could exceed the gains from further liberaliza...

Since the formation of the GATT in 1947, the belief underlying U.S. participation in GATT multilateral tariff reductions has been that they are beneficial to the U.S. This paper reports general equilibrium computations of the welfare effects of a 50% multilateral tariff reduction among developed countries using a seven region world trade model due...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Western Ontario, 1986. Includes bibliographical references.