The Economics of Subsidies in Ontario’s Automotive Industry

We compare the choice between granting subsidies to the automotive industry and using the funds instead to implement a permanent reduction in the sales tax on capital goods, one of Ontario’s most distortionary taxes. Our results depend critically upon how workers respond to the withdrawal of subsidies. Either workers agree to reduce their wages to offset the lost subsidies or they refuse to adjust. Our cost-benefit analysis shows the best outcome for the economy is to eliminate the subsidies, have workers adjust, and reduce the deadweight loss of taxation. The second-best outcome is to subsidize, maintain high wage levels in the industry, but forgo the benefits of tax reform. The worst outcome would be to withdraw subsidies, have workers refuse to adjust, and then experience lost employment and production. In contrast, the best outcome for the affected workers is to maintain high wages through subsidies. Therefore workers have an incentive to act strategically, by refusing to adjust their wages. For this reason, the government’s openness to subsidies likely contributes to an environment in which subsidies become inevitable.subsidies, Ontario, automotive sector

Greater Saving Required: Ahow Alberta Can Achieve Fiscal Sustainability from its Resource Revenues

The challenges that come with an abundant supply of resource wealth present difficult fiscal decisions for the Alberta government. One highly publicized concern is the need for the province to devise a long-run plan for resource revenue savings.fiscal policy, fiscal sustainability, government spending

Is There a Principle of Targeting in Environmental Taxation?

We test whether the principle of targeting (alternatively Sandmo’s (1975) additivity property and Kopczuk’s (2003) decomposition involving the Pigovian rule) has relevance for environmental taxation in a second best world consisting of an exogenous revenue requirement and pre-existing distortionary taxes. In the context of differentiated commodity taxes, we find that Sandmo’s additivity property breaks down once one solves explicitly for the marginal cost of public funds (MCPF). Further, in the more realistic setting of a uniform commodity tax and a dedicated emissions tax, we find that the additivity property no longer holds even in the form Sandmo studied it, i.e. without solving explicitly for the MCPF. Finally, we argue that Koczuk’s decomposition is not persuasive, as it requires that a second government agency must apply a corrective tax or subsidy to adjust the choice of the Pigovian rule by the environmental agency. In a same-numbers exercise (i.e. the number of tax instruments is not increased), we show that there is no presumption in favour of a direct emissions tax over a uniform commodity tax; rather, the choice depends upon the size of the environmental damages. We conclude that there does not exist a principle of targeting in environmental taxation.environmental taxation; second best; principle of targeting

A comparison of integrated testlet and constructed-response question formats

Constructed-response (CR) questions are a mainstay of introductory physics textbooks and exams. However, because of time, cost, and scoring reliability constraints associated with this format, CR questions are being increasingly replaced by multiple-choice (MC) questions in formal exams. The integrated testlet (IT) is a recently-developed question structure designed to provide a proxy of the pedagogical advantages of CR questions while procedurally functioning as set of MC questions. ITs utilize an answer-until-correct response format that provides immediate confirmatory or corrective feedback, and they thus allow not only for the granting of partial credit in cases of initially incorrect reasoning, but furthermore the ability to build cumulative question structures. Here, we report on a study that directly compares the functionality of ITs and CR questions in introductory physics exams. To do this, CR questions were converted to concept-equivalent ITs, and both sets of questions were deployed in midterm and final exams. We find that both question types provide adequate discrimination between stronger and weaker students, with CR questions discriminating slightly better than the ITs. Meanwhile, an analysis of inter-rater scoring of the CR questions raises serious concerns about the reliability of the granting of partial credit when this traditional assessment technique is used in a realistic (but non optimized) setting. Furthermore, we show evidence that partial credit is granted in a valid manner in the ITs. Thus, together with consideration of the vastly reduced costs of administering IT-based examinations compared to CR-based examinations, our findings indicate that ITs are viable replacements for CR questions in formal examinations where it is desirable to both assess concept integration and to reward partial knowledge, while efficiently scoring examinations.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, with appendix. Accepted for publication in PRST-PER (August 2014

Suburban Condominium Development, Private Interests, And The Role Of Image Production In The Reorientation Of Urban Form In The Gta

For the better part of their modern existence, the municipalities comprising the Greater Toronto Area (“GTA”) have been characterized by low-density, auto-centric development and single-detached homes. For more than the past decade, however, the development of urban form in the GTA has shifted from a focus on horizontal sprawl to vertical growth, predicated by the introduction of protected greenbelt areas and planning policies dramatically restricting the amount of available greenfield land for development and shaping future land consumption. Coinciding with the policy push towards intensification was the emergence of a condominium boom in the City of Toronto that has permeated outwards Toronto’s neighbouring suburban municipalities. The urban forms of Mississauga, Vaughan and Markham have begun to undergo significant change guided by the notion that mid- and high-rise condominium towers are no longer solely a central-city building typology. Mid-rise and high-rise towers have been introduced as a new suburban built form typology integral to support suburban strategies of intensification. These ‘suburban’ municipalities have utilized different approaches with respect to the physical appearance of the built environment to support neoliberal urban development agendas to shift from once classical bedroom communities or towns into intensified, competitive major players in the metropolitan landscape both locally and globally. How have the policies of current land-use planning regimes, the actions of the local development industry and the perceptions of users of suburban space played a role in this shift in the built environment? Further, what do the city-building processes and image production practices employed reflect about the political, economic and social systems controlling development in the Toronto city-region? To answer these questions, this paper explores how changes in suburban form have been influenced by socially constructed imagery and values as communicated by planning policy and placemarketing strategies. It investigates why this imagery is created, how it is used by condominium developers to proliferate suburban built form, and how this imagery is received and consumed by individuals. Focusing on the commodification of housing form, this research explores the motivating factors exploited by the development industry to promote new built form typologies in the suburbs

The Impact of Personality Characteristics on Online Academic Experience and Performance

The literature has demonstrated clear relationships between personality traits, locus of control, academic self-efficacy, and academic achievement. However, past research has seldom investigated personality characteristics and subjective measures of academic success. The current study investigated how personality impacted the academic experience and grades of university students using an online self-report questionnaire. All measures of personality traits, academic self-efficacy, and locus of control were correlated with measures of a successful online academic experience. Academic self-efficacy was the only significant predictor of life satisfaction, effort regulation, and course value/enjoyment, while locus of control was the single predictor of perceived control over learning. Openness, academic self-efficacy, and locus of control were correlated with students’ final grades, and academic self-efficacy was the only significant predictor. These findings are generally consistent with prior research and suggest that individual differences significantly impact online grades and educational experiences

Electrical Pulse Stimulation of MCF7 Breast Cancer Coordinates Autophagy Reprogramming and Proliferative Failure Leading to Cellular Senescence

The utilization of Electrical Pulse Stimulation (EPS) has been predominantly used to study the physiological, cellular, and molecular responses of excitable cells such as nerve and muscle. Based on previous work on myotubes, non-excitable myoblasts, and non-excitable cancerous rhabdomyosarcoma cells, this study looks into the effects of EPS on breast cancer cells (MCF7s). My aim is to characterize the response of MCF7 cells to EPS and add to a working model of cell cycle arrest, autophagy, and cell death mediated by calcium signaling through cell cycle signaling proteins. This is based on the body of literature detailing the effects of EPS on excitable cell types. Ultimately, by stressing cancer cells with EPS, we can learn more about potential novel modes to induce mechanisms of proliferative failure

Survey of respiratory sounds in infants

Background: Over the last decade there has been an apparent increase in childhood wheeze. We speculated that much of the reported increase may be attributed to the term wheeze being adopted by parents to describe a variety of other forms of noisy breathing. Aims: To investigate terminology used by parents to describe their children’s breath sounds. Methods: An interview was carried out with the parents of 92 infants with noisy breathing, beginning with an open question and then directed towards a more detailed description. Finally, the parents were asked to choose from a wheeze, ruttle, and stridor on imitation by the investigator and video clips of children. Results: Wheeze was the most commonly chosen word on initial questioning (59%). Only 36% were still using this term at the end of the interview, representing a decrease of one third, whereas the use of the word ruttles doubled. Conclusions: Our results reflect the degree of inaccuracy involved in the use of the term wheeze in clinical practice, which may be leading to over diagnosis. Imprecise use of this term has potentially important implications for therapy and clinical trials