Abstract Physicians are typically paid for services completed. Yet, they provide different types of services with different prices, introducing a multitasking element to their labour-supply decisions. We show that optimal behaviour generates a maximum earnings function in which earnings depend on prices and total hours worked. Estimation by limited-information methods identifies a lower bound to the own-price substitution effect of a price change. Full-information methods identify the full response to incentives, including income effects. We illustrate these methods on a sample of specialist p ..read more

Abstract Despite significant changes in gender norms over the 20th century and a substantial increase in women's labour force participation, women continue to provide the majority of unpaid child care. This poses a barrier to further improvements in women's labour force participation, especially when child care is limited, inaccessible or unaffordable. This paper explores the impact of substantial increases in child care accessibility and affordability on women's labour market outcomes by exploiting the rollout of free, full-day programming for four-year-old children in Nova Scotia from 2017/1 ..read more

Abstract We study the effects of international trade on the oligopsony power of firms in input markets. We build a theoretical model of international trade in which firms are oligopolists in the market for final goods and oligopsonists in the market for inputs. Consistent with evidence from the literature, firms' markups over unit costs rise with the level of oligopsony power and of oligopoly power. While trade liberalization decreases market power in one market, it has the opposite effect in the other. In particular, international competition between oligopolists in final goods markets causes ..read more

Abstract In a diverse society, heterogeneous returns to public goods (PG) and public bads (PB) are more often the rule rather than the exception, and often the returns from the public pool are such that individuals who are most affected no longer have incentives to free ride on others. We consider this set-up through a laboratory experiment and investigate how heterogeneity of marginal per capita returns (MPCRs) affect economic cooperation in both PG and PB games. We also examine whether information on heterogeneity—no information, information and information with a plea to help those who are ..read more

Abstract We formulate an international oligopoly model in the presence of global common ownership. We theoretically investigate how common ownership affects the volume of international trade in an oligopoly market and global welfare. We find that welfare decreases (increases) with the degree of common ownership when the international transport costs are low (high), whereas common ownership reduces international trade. This conclusion remains valid in the presence of import tariffs and asymmetric common ownership share. Résumé Effets sur le bien-être de la propriété commune dans un duopole inte ..read more

Abstract Turnover (sales) is frequently used in developing countries as a presumptive income tax base to economize on the costs of tax administration and taxpayer compliance. We construct a simple model where a size threshold separates firms paying turnover tax from those paying regular income tax and where firms have the option of producing in the untaxed, informal sector. The optimal turnover tax rate trades off two policy concerns: reducing informality and avoiding strategic reductions in sales by firms seeking to remain below the threshold for the regular income tax. We provide analytical ..read more

Abstract We look at divestments by foreign firms—a topic that has received comparatively little attention in the literature—and investigate how changes in the regulatory environment in the host country may impact on such divestment decisions. We use the implementation of China's two control zones (TCZ) policy as a “quasi-natural experiment,” using detailed firm-level combined with city-level data for the empirical analysis. Our results show that the implementation of the TCZ policy has led to higher probabilities of divestments by foreign firms in cities and industries targeted by the TCZ poli ..read more

Abstract This paper discusses how import tariffs interact with transport prices in episodes of trade liberalization. We develop a model of a transport industry that operates under imperfect competition and economies of scale. Double marginalization due to market power reduces the effects of trade liberalization, while a larger trade volume may support them due to economies of scale. We use a large data set of maritime transport data and combine them with tariff data to find that economies of scale beat market power: a decline in the tariff implies a decline in freight rates. Résumé Droits de d ..read more

Abstract We study the behaviour of Canadian Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth over the past 60 years. We find that the observed stagnation during the last 20 years is accounted for entirely by the oil sector. Higher oil prices made capital-intensive sources of oil like the oil sands viable to extract on a commercial scale. However, the greater input required per barrel of oil slowed TFP growth. Comparing Canadian TFP growth with that of the United States and Norway reinforces these results. However, our result should not be interpreted to carry any welfare implications. Résumé Croissance ..read more

Abstract Artificial intelligence (AI) may be the next general purpose technology. General purpose technologies, such as the steam engine and computing, can have an outsized impact on productivity through a positive feedback loop between producing and application industries. Along with the discussion of AI's potential to improve productivity come a number of policy concerns related to AI's potential to automate jobs and to create existential risk for humanity. Because of these worries, in March 2023, a widely circulated petition called for a pause in AI research. That letter asked several quest ..read more