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ABSTRACT . This paper examines alternative hypotheses as to why French Canadians are underrepresented on National Hockey League teams based in English Canada relative to their representation on teams based in the United States. Using panel data, the paper accounts for the idiosyncratic behavior of specific teams by using a fixed-effects model. With these fixed-effects accounted for, the paper tests the degree to which the representation of French Canadians on a team is related to that team's location—either in English Canada or the United States—versus the degree to which the representation is related to the ethnic origin of that team's coach and general manager. It finds the ethnic origin variables to be unable to explain the representational patterns, leaving the team location variable as the only significant explanatory variable. These statistical findings thus support a “customer discrimination” explanation of the underrepresentation, as opposed to an “employer discrimination” explanation. Identifying this source of any potential discrimination is important, since different sources will have different implications for the prospects of reducing such discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the paper "The Dynamics of North American Trade and Investment Canada, Mexico and the United States," edited by Clark W. Reynolds, Jeonard Waverman and Gerardo Bueno. It informs that contributions from the three countries are carefully balanced and a broad range of problems is examined. Canada and the U.S., with annual trade in excess of 200 billions of dollars, provide the most important example of bilateral trade in the contemporary world. Their similar per capita incomes, banking systems provisions for the enforcement of contracts and common language (apart from Quebec) make adjustments easier for both parties. But in case of Mexico, differences are greater, required adjustments more fundamental and their implementation will take longer. Mexico's history of inflation, capital flight, collapse of security prices, and record levels of external debt, led to the Economic Solidarity Pact of late 1987. It included measures to restrain wages and prices reduce the budgetary deficit and, otherwise, to tighten be its. It was successful to the extent that inflation was reduced to an annual rate of tighten belts.

This paper presents the results of a recently conducted survey of 1500 professional economists living in the United States and Canada The study was undertaken in an attempt to ascertain professional economists' views of the worth and usefulness of their own scientific research. The response rate of the survey was 49 percent (734 respondents) yielding statistical results which suggest that economists do believe their research has some social value. Economists in this survey believe, however, that the spillover benefits from that research are not substantial and are probably limited to certain groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provisions made by the governments of the United States, Canada and Australia to compensate individuals injured on account of in- creased import competition are examined. The rationale for specifically favoring trade displaced workers, even though employees elsewhere, on account of technological and other changes, also experience disruption, is explained. There- after, the salient features of the three countries' adjustment assistance schemes are outlined and their relative effectiveness evaluated. By and large, none of the three countries has provided sufficient compensation or amelioration to attenuate resistance by either firms or workers to freer trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results are reported of empirically testing two hypotheses relating to violence in a professional team sport: one, that hockey fans have a taste for violence (hockey is a "blood sport") so that, in general, game attendance and violence in the National Hockey League ate positively related; and two, more specifically, that the more extreme degrees of violence are positively associated with American, not Canadian, attendance. The data are game by game data for the 1983/84 season, violence is measured by various categories of penalty minutes (minors, majors, misconducts), and the model is a system of two reduced form equations. The results confirm that there is a significant and positive relationship between aggregate measures of violence (total penalty minutes) and attendance for games played in both American and Canadian cities; and there is a significant positive relationship between the more extreme forms of violence (proxied by majors and misconducts) and attendance only in American cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canada U.S. Free Trade agreement (FTA) which came into force January 1, 1989 caused heated debate within Canada about the impact it would have on social programs, either directly or indirectly it was argued that Canada would have to give up some social programs because they would be deemed to be subsidies to the production of goods or services. Alternatively, it was feared that firms would argue that the programs would need to be cut in order to ensure that they could compete with U. S. firms in terms of taxes. It is shown that public unease about the fate of social programs was based both on a misunderstanding of FIA provisions, and on a "misperception' of the mag nitude of social program expenditure Social programs such as unemployment insurance, even when they subsidize particular groups of people (e. g. fisher men) are not normally deemed to be unfair competition which would be countervailable. In addition, firms do not experience any greater benefit costs in Canada than in the U. S., albeit there is a different public/private split and thus there is no justification for firms to argue for cutting social programs in order to be competitive, other things being equal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alvin H. Hansen was one of the leading American economists from the 1930s to the 1960s. He was largely responsible for the popularization of Keynesian economics in the United States and Canada. He was responsible for the development of the stagnation thesis which explained 19th century American economic growth In terms of population growth, the frontier, and technology. The diminishing of these factors explained the decrease in the American economic growth rate in the 20th Century. Hansen's policy conclusions to prevent stagnation were Keynesian in nature and, as a result, Hansen was an early advocate of active fiscal policy in the United States. He differed with Terborgh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theory based on four stages of social and cultural changes for large territorial units is presented and three hypotheses are deduced linking territorial differentiation to societal change. The stages are measured by the degree to which the territorial units of a society display similar characteristics, and whether the units are diverging or converging from one another. Hypothesis I asserts that the form of societal change among territorial units over time is curvilinear. Hypothesis II maintains that changes in technological efficiency lead to changes in territorial differentiation on selected social and cultural characteristics. Finally, according to Hypothesis III, changes in territorial differentiation on technological efficiency are directly related to changes in territorial differentiation on selected social and cultural characteristics. The hypotheses are tested in terms of changes in the United States and Canada and receive strong support from the direction and magnitude of the relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the idea of the U.S. to have free trade with Canada. Americans must realize that they are no longer dealing with a small and insignificant Dominion, but Canada that has emerged from nationhood into a position generally recognized as that of a world power. Canada has certainly achieved enough since 1939, and given the U.S. such outstanding aid, as to be able to demand the fullest equality of consideration. The Dominion has not even accepted lend lease aid from the U.S., but has paid the U.S. for all war materials or manufactured articles imported from the United States for the use of its military or naval forces, while raw materials bought from the U.S. by Canada for use in making armaments for England were debited to England under lend-lease. In these war relationships Canada's aim has been the mutual benefit of both countries without any selfish purpose or any objective that it was not willing to share with the U.S. or any other country. If the Dominion is now met with similar evidences of American good-will and the desire to make the U.S.'s postwar relations as close as those between the individual American States, and not in a horse-trading spirit, not only will the two countries profit, but the whole world.