Cet atelier s’adresse aux chercheurs et étudiants de doctorat en sciences économiques qui s’intéressent à l’économie des ressources naturelles et de l’environnement. 

L'atelier du 10 mars a accueillit Louis Hotte, professeur Université d’Ottawa et Moubarak Mondou, doctorant Université Laval.

• Louis Hotte (Université d’Ottawa)

EXPLAINING THE 2020 PANDEMIC HOMICIDE PUZZLE: THEORY AND EVIDENCE

• While most types of major crimes have decreased slightly or remained unchanged during the pandemic year 2020, the homicide numbers increased dramatically. We propose a theoretical mechanism to explain this, and test it with an empirical model. The theory is based on the effects of the sudden and unexpected large numbers of unemployed, along with the unprecedented compensation amounts under the CARES act. The empirical approach exploits the fact that States differed greatly in the swiftness with which they sent compensations to the unemployed. The empirical results are consistent with the theory

• Moubarak Moundou (doctorant, Université Laval)

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES, GREEN PREFERENCES AND COMPETITION: HOW TO PROMOTE CLEAN INNOVATION?

• This paper investigates the effect of an environmental tax on firms' decision to innovate in clean technology when consumers have "green values". We answer the question whether the tax and the green values are complements or substitutes and shed light on the role of competition in this mechanism. We adjust a step-by-step innovation model proposed by Aghion et al. 2020 and find that an environmental tax can have a positive or negative influence on the "green" investment decision made by firms. The negative effect of the tax is observed when the regulator makes a marginal increase of tax in an industry where: firstly, the level of competition is low between leaders (may be market legislation is not strong enough to avoid collision) and secondly the leaders’ product is compared to the competitive fringe of the industry.  When this effect is positive, tax and green preferences are substitutable and when it is negative, they are complements. This result, at the theoretical level, mitigates the conclusion of Aghion et al. 2020 for the automobile industry, indicating that, for a targeted level of green innovation, the regulator can promote green preferences and enhance competition at realistic levels rather than raise the price of gasoline significantly.