Is there a theoretical basis for subsidizing employment in low-income regions? A two-region model is analyzed where there is migration of labour between regions, costs of migration, and unemployment in the low-income region. Workers migrate according to the expected wage net of the cost of...

International trade theorists recently have rediscovered a possibility, pointed many years ago by F.Y. Edgeworth, that growth in an open economy might actually decrease the welfare of the community. According to Bhagwati, immiserization could occur as the result of growth only in the presence of...

This paper examines some implications for Ontario of the increases in domestic energy prices, especially oil prices, that are expected to occur in the 1980s. We argue some reallocation of economic activity away from Ontario towards Alberta is called for, but is quite small. It is likely there...

This paper surveys the evolution of the use of the theory of second best in public economics. It argues that much of modern normative public economics can be interpreted as simply applied second-best analysis. The original theory of second best as expounded by Lipsey and Lancaster involved...

Governments typically used expenditures extensively as redistributive devices. Examples include the public provision of health, education, welfare, and public pensions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the normative rationale for such policies. In particular, we study the role of...

A classic argument in the theory of crime is that optimal enforcement policy should involve maximal sanctions combined with minimal detection costs. Yet this is rarely observed in the real world. We argue that reson for this has to do with the time inconsistency of such a policy. If sanctions...

This paper investigates the efficiency argument for a vertical fiscal gap in a federation using a simple model of a central government and several identical states. Each level provides a public good to residents within its jurisdiction and finances it by taxing labour income and rents. If labour...

Evasion and time inconsistency have been prominent concerns in recent discussions capital income taxation, both theoretical and applied. This paper establishes a link between them, suggesting a potentially useful role for evasion additional to those previously identified: by committing to...