As reported, most DC pension scheme participants simply follow proposed defaults, even though they have the freedom to choose. Consequently, default designs have dramatic impacts on individuals’retirement saving outcomes. Given the fact that the default design matters, this paper evaluates contribution default designs to help DC plan participants to save and invest wisely. The proposed defaults...

Past climatic changes were caused by a slowdown of the thermohaline circulation. We use results from experiments with three climate models to show that the expected cooling due to a slowdown of the thermohaline circulation is less in magnitude than the expected warming due to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. The integrated assessment model FUND and a meta-analysis of climate impacts ar...

Tobacco regulation efforts have been criticized by some academic economists for failing to provide adequate welfare-analytic justification. This paper attempts to address these criticisms. Unlike previous research that has discussed second-hand smoke and health care financing externalities, this paper develops the logic for identifying the much larger market failures attributable to the failure...

This paper develops a welfare theoretic framework for interpreting evidence on the impacts of public programs on housing markets. We extend Rosen’s hedonic model to explain how housing prices capitalize exogenous shocks to local public goods and externalities. The model predicts that trading between heterogeneous buyers and sellers will drive a wedge between these “capitalization effects” and w...

This study models net welfare impacts on producers who receive utility from on-farm wildlife populations that are not costlessly disposable. Wildlife damage levels where net benefits are zero indicate producers' maximum willingness to pay for on-farm wildlife. An empirical model is developed. Results for Ontario producers suggest the net welfare loss from damage is approximately half of the val...

In the context of a simple model of strategic international bisourcing, we investigate the reasons why firms may simultaneously insource and internationally outsource. We also explore the impacts of international outsourcing on the production pattern of finished goods, tradable fragment prices, and welfare. The policy implications of attempts to restrict outsourcing are also established. We sho...

Aided by the longest economic expansion in U.S. history and other policy changes designed to make work pay, federal welfare reform legislation has spurred mothers to leave welfare at an unprecedented rate. The majority of mothers who left welfare are working, but most have jobs with low pay and limited benefits. This article discusses the relationship between economic resources and child well-b...

We develop a quality ladder model to study the R&D incentive impacts of intellectual property rights with a “research exemption” or “experimental use” provision. The innovation process is sequential and cumulative and takes place alongside production in an infinite-horizon setting. We solve the model under two distinct intellectual property regimes, characterize the properties of the relevant M...

This study evaluates the impacts of the trade liberalization under Doha Round on basmati rice in Pakistan using a partial equilibrium model. Price integration analysis shows that there is a stable long-run relationship between farm gate price and wholesale price and between wholesale price and world price of basmati and non-basmati rice. Direction of influence is from world price to wholesale p...

This paper studies the macroeconomic effects of implicit government guarantees of Government-Sponsored Enterprises obligations. We construct a model with competitive housing and mortgage markets where the government provides banks with insurance against aggregate shocks to mortgage default risk. We use this model to evaluate aggregate and distributional impacts of this government subsidy to own...