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We analyze the total factor productivity (TFP) of the pulp and paper industry in three Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec) and in three United States (US) states that are contiguously located south of the border (Washington, Illinois, and Maine) over the period of 1971 to 2005. We find that the industry in the three Canadian provinces had much higher TFP growth rates in the era following the Free-Trade Agreement (FTA) signed in 1988. In terms of productivity level, this relative TFP surge allowed the industry in Ontario and British Columbia to move ahead of Illinois and Washington, respectively; however, Quebec trailed further Maine, which is the overall leader in the sample. Our results in this particular case reveal that the Canadian pulp and paper industry did not contribute to the overall Canada-US productivity gap. Key words: total factor productivity, income convergence, pulp and paper industry, Free-Trade Agreement (FTA), productivity puzzle. Nous avons analyse la productivity totale des facteurs (PTF) de l'industrie des pates et papiers dans trois provinces canadiennes (Colombie-Britannique, Ontario et Quebec) et trois etats americains situes immediatement au sud de la frontiere (Washington, Illinois et Maine) pour la periode de 1971 a 2005. Nous avons remarque que l'industrie dans les trois provinces canadiennes avait un taux de croissance de la PTF bien plus elevee pour la periode suivant l'Accord de libre -echange signe en 1988. En ce concerne le niveau de productivite, l'augmentation relative de la PTF a permis a l'industrie de l'Ontario et de la Colombie-Britannique de devancer respectivement l'lllinois et Washington; cependant le Quebec accuse toujours un certain retard sur le Maine qui est le chef de file dans notre echantillon. Dans ce cas particulier, nos resultats revelent que l'industrie canadienne des pates et papiers ne contribue pas a l'ecart global de productivite entre le Canada et les Etats -Unis. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles : productivite totale des facteurs, convergence des revenus, industrie des pates et papier, Accord de libre-echange, casse-tete de la productivite., 1. Introduction "Canada has a serious productivity growth problem. The statistical evidence is unambiguous and of long standing." (1) Real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita increased at a slightly [...]

U.S. Energy Tax Policy edited by GILBERT E. METCALF (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014), 401 pages. Hardback ISBN 978-0-521-19668-0. The papers included in this book were presented at a conference [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2010.07.002 Byline: Jean-Thomas Bernard (a), Denis Bolduc (a), Nadege-Desiree Yameogo (b) Keywords: Household electricity consumption; Pseudo-panel data Abstract: We study the dynamic behaviour of household electricity consumption on the basis of four large independent surveys conducted in the province of Quebec from 1989 to 2002. The latter region displays some rather unique features such as the very extensive use of electricity for space heating in a cold climate and the wide range of energy sources used to meet space heating requirements. We adopt approach to create 25 cohorts of households that form a pseudo-panel. The cohorts have on average 131 households. The model error terms allow for group heteroskedasticity and serial correlation. Short-run and long-run own and cross-price elasticities are statistically significant. Electricity and natural gas are estimated to be substitutes while electricity and fuel oil are complements, as it may occur in the Quebec context. The estimate of the income elasticity is not significant. Comparisons with related studies are provided. Author Affiliation: (a) GREEN, Department of Economics, Universite Laval, Quebec, Canada G1V 0A6 (b) Analysis Group Inc., 1080 Beaver Hill, Suite 1810, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2Z 1S8 Article History: Received 13 March 2009; Revised 17 May 2010; Accepted 14 July 2010 Article Note: (footnote) [star] We thank The Chaire en economique de l'energie electrique, Universite Laval, for financial support and Hydro-Quebec for making their residential consumer surveys available to us. We are solely responsible for the results presented in this paper.

A study was conducted to assess and compare alternative approaches to modeling effects such as mean reversion and stochastic convenience yield and volatility. Findings indicate that models with stochastic convenience yield outperform other competing models. Results also show that the use of futures prices does not always yield lower forecast error values compared to the use of spot prices.