James B. Davies’s research while affiliated with Western University and other places

Federal provision of scientific information and support for science research have declined significantly in recent years, and a trend away from pure research toward applied and commercializable research has begun. This commentary asks whether those and other trends in this area can be justified in terms of economic efficiency. It is argued that the marginal benefits of scientific information and research have likely risen relative to production costs and the marginal cost of public funds has fallen, implying that reduced provision cannot be justified on efficiency grounds. An efficiency rationale for increased support for commercializable research is also lacking. Longer-term trends include the rise of open data, which does make sense, and a relative shift from intramural government research and development toward universitybased R&D. The latter shift likely responds to underlying economic factors, but does not warrant a sudden sharp reduction in government research, such as seen recently in Canada.

Global carbon pricing can yield revenues which are large enough to create significant global pro-poor redistributive opportunities. We analyze alternative multidecade growth trajectories from 2015 to 2105 for major global economies with carbon tax rates designed to stabilize emissions in the presence of both continued country growth and autonomous energy use efficiency improvement. In our central case analysis, revenues from globally internalizing carbon pricing rise to 8 % and then fall to 6 % of gross world product. High growth in India and China reduces global inequality and poverty strongly over time, but important incremental redistributive effects can be achieved using global carbon pricing revenues. Taking into account both between-country effects and previous literature estimates of within-country effects, a global carbon tax alone tends to be regressive in its global incidence. However, if its revenues are redistributed globally via equal per capita transfers, in our central case the Gini coefficient for world income falls by about 3 % and the share of the bottom decile rises by 81 % on average from 2015 to 2105. The population living in poverty falls by 16 % in 2015. Going further, global poverty could be eliminated entirely by 2015 according to our calculations if one third of global carbon tax revenues were redistributed directly to the poorest individuals.

Effective tax and subsidy rates (ETRs and ESRs) on human capital investment via post-secondary education are estimated for Canada in the years 2000 and 2006. The flattening of the federal personal income tax structure in 2001 substantially reduced the tax disincentive for investment in human capital. Effective subsidy rates also declined as public spending did not keep pace with rising tuition fees. The change on the tax side was strong enough to dominate the subsidy reduction according to our main results, but disaggregation shows that this result did not hold in all cases. Results are shown for College, Master's, and PhD programs, in addition to Bachelor's degrees. They are also broken down by gender, and are shown for the 25th and 75th percentiles as well as the median. Provincial detail and 1997 results are provided in the case of Bachelor's graduates. Les taux effectifs de taxation et de subvention sur l’investissement en capital humain via l’éducation post-secondaire sont évalués pour les années 2000 et 2006. L’aplatissement de la structure d’imposition fédérale sur le revenu en 2001 a réduit substantiellement la désincitation fiscale à investir dans le capital humain. Les taux effectifs de subventions ont aussi déclinéà proportion que les dépenses publiques n’ont pas crû au rythme des frais de scolarité. Les changements côté impôts ont été assez importants pour dominer les impacts des réductions de subventions selon les résultats généraux, mais les résultats désagrégés montrent que cela ne tient pas dans tous les cas. On présente les résultats pour les collèges, les maîtrises et les doctorats en plus des baccalauréats. On ventile aussi les résultats selon le sexe, et on présente les résultats pour les 25e et 75e percentiles de gains ainsi que pour la médiane. On donne les résultats au niveau provincial en 1997 pour le cas des grades de premier cycle.

The importance of transfers of goods, services and cash between parents and children has long been apparent. Nonetheless many economists were surprised when Kotlikoff and Summers (1981) reported their estimate that 80% of the household wealth of the United States is due to inheritance rather than life-cycle saving. Despite counterclaims (e.g., by Modigliani, 1988), it is now generally acknowledged that a large fraction of saving is not destined for consumption in retirement, but gives rise to bequests. In addition, Cox (1987) has reported that the annual flow of gifts intervivos exceeds that of bequests in the U.S. by a considerable margin. The importance of parental inputs into formation of human capital is universally recognized. Finally, the work by Bernheim, Shleifer and Summers (1985) (BSS), Cox, and others has focused attention on flows of services in kind between parents and children. In short, we are now well aware that intergenerational transfers are quantitatively very important.

Global carbon pricing can yield revenues which are large enough to create significant global pro-poor redistributive opportunities. We analyze alternative multidecade growth trajectories for major global economies with carbon tax rates designed to stabilize emissions in the presence of both continued country growth and autonomous energy use efficiency improvement. In our central case analysis, revenues from globally internalizing carbon pricing rise to 7% and then fall to 5% of gross world product. High growth in India and China is the major equalizing force globally over time, but the incremental redistributive effects that can be achieved using global carbon pricing revenues are large both in absolute and relative terms. Revenues from carbon pricing depend on growth and energy efficiency improvement parameters as well as on the price elasticity of demand for fossil fuels.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

This paper overviews recent work that has attempted to bring together microsimulation, Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) and macro models to perform distributional analysis in developing and transition countries. Particular attention is paid to applications relating to aspects of economic growth and political economy. Applications in which macro, CGE and microsimulation models are either layered or integrated are considered. It is demonstrated that different combinations of such models, including those where only a single model-type is used, are appropriate for different problems. For short-run impact analysis, microsimulation on its own may be appropriate. For longer-run analyses, where interest is in the interrelationship between changes in disposable income, consumption and labour supply, these models need to be supplemented a combination of microsimulation on the one hand, and general equilibrium price changes or changes in macro variables on the other hand. In the case of national subregions, or countries embedded in free-trade areas, it is argued that microsimulation may adequately be combined with pure macro models. That is, CGE modelling may not be necessary. For distinct national economies, however, the first step beyond microsimulation should likely be integration with CGE modelling. Whilst much promising work has been undertaken on dynamic integrated CGE microsimulation work in developing countries, CGE work is most advanced for Less Developed Countries. At present several groups of development researchers are found to be putting these two approaches together, and in some cases are adding macroeconomic and financial modelling as well. In contrast, with a few conspicuous exceptions, little such work is being done for the transition economies.

We investigate the challenge how the outcomes of innovation for inclusive growth, the novel organizational recipes, can be scaled to match the dimension of poverty. We conceptualize scaling as sustained event regularities between doing A and expected outcomes B. Building on a critical realist perspective, we develop an analytical framework of organizational closure and apply it to an extreme case, an organization with an inclusive growth model that has sustained event regularities for more than two decades. Our analysis reveals closure as an organizational competence with important implications for achieving scale in the context of poverty. We develop of a number of propositions between the link of organizational closure and scaling with implications for practice and further academic research.

This study considers asset holdings in rural Ethiopia. It shows that households own mostly non-financial assets and that the composition of asset portfolios varies significantly with the household's overall wealth and its exposure to uncertainty. As regards the distribution of assets, inequality is lowest for land holdings and much higher for all other assets. More generally, asset inequality is higher than consumption inequality but, somewhat surprisingly, lower than income inequality. Less surprising is the finding that asset holdings are positively correlated with income and consumption. An analysis of how asset holdings vary with key demographic variables shows that assets increase with the size of the household and the education of the household head. Finally, the study concludes by exploring the role that assets play in marriage markets in rural Ethiopia. © United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), 2008. All rights reserved.

We examine the publications of authors affiliated with an economics research institution in Canada in (1) the Top-10 journals in economics according to journals' impact factors, and (2) the Canadian Journal of Economics. We consider all publications in the even years from 1980 to 2000. Canadian economists contributed about 5% of publications in the Top-10 journals and about 55% of publications in the Canadian Journal of Economics over this period. We identify the most active research centres and identify trends in their relative outputs over time. Those research centres successful in publishing in the Top-10 journals are found to also dominate the Canadian Journal of Economics. Additionally, we check the robustness of our findings with respect to journal selection, and we present data on authors' PhD origin, thereby indicating output and its concentration in graduate education. Les auteurs examinent les publications d'auteurs affiliés à une institution de recherche économique au Canada dans (1) les dix meilleures revues en science économique telles que déterminées par les facteurs d'impact, et (2) la Revue canadienne d'économique.On examine les publications dans les années paires entre 1980 et 2000. Les économistes qui ont une adresse au Canada contribuent 5% des publications dans les dix meilleures revues, et 55% des articles dans la Revue canadienne d'économique dans cet échantillon. Les auteurs identifient les centres de recherche les plus actifs et les tendances dans leur production relative au fil du temps. Les centres qui réussissent le mieux dans les meilleures revues dominent aussi la scène dans la Revue canadienne d'économique. On vérifie la robustesse des résultats pour ce qui est de la sélection des revues, et on présente des données sur les centres où les auteurs résidant au Canada ont obtenu leur doctorat, établissant ainsi un rapport entre le niveau de production et la concentration sur certains centres d'enseignement supérieur.