Browsing by Author "Chan, David"

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    From Nixon to Trump Energy Policy in the Global Era
    (2019-09-19) Mcquaid, Alexander Leon Peter; Chan, David
    From 1970 to 2011 the United States underwent a 20% increase in trade as a percentage of GDP. International trade growth has complicated the accurate estimation of cumulative environmental effects while necessitating increased political entanglement. The current US-China trade war illustrates this complexity. Current trade talks include, but are not limited to ‘decoupling’ the two nations and the ‘reshoring’ of US manufacturing. If decoupling were to occur the United States would also be reshoring the energy demands and the ecological impacts of greater goods production. This paper evaluates this possible shift in terms of its impact on environmental and energy policy. It considers the causes for economic and political entanglement during this period, and the need for policy adjustments. To this end, this paper ultimately argues that the United States government ought to fund global multi-regional input-output (MRIO) studies in order to better inform environmental and energy policy.
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    The Relationship Between Automobile Liability Costs and Government Social Spending
    (HEC Montreal, 2011) Kleffner, Anne; Born, Patricia; Chan, David
    Liability insurance is one of the primary mechanisms for compensating individuals who are injured in auto accidents. An injured individual’s propensity to seek compensation through the legal system depends on his or her expected payoff and access to other sources of compensation. A justification for social insurance programs that provide compensation to injured parties is the potential for such compensation to reduce the need for victims to seek compensation through the legal system. If such programs serve as substitutes for the legal system as sources of compensation, then we expect that as spending on these programs decreases, liability costs will increase, and vice-versa. Using State-level data for the U.S., and provincial-level data for Canada, we evaluate the relationship between government health/welfare spending and automobile liability insurance costs. Our results suggest a small but significant substitute relationship in both countries. Information that substantiates a connection between these sources will be useful in public assistance decision-making.