Income support programs constitute an integral component of modern labour markets and represent significant fiscal commitments on the part of governments. This thesis examines two key income support programs in Canada and their impact on labour market outcomes, namely employment insurance (EI) and social assistance (SA). Together expenditures on EI and SA represented approximately 2 per cent of Canadian GDP in 1998-99 and influenced a range of labour market decisions relating to labour force participation, employment and unemployment spells. The analysis in this thesis provides new evidence on the role of the EI and SA programs on labour market outcomes by examining the interface between the programs and labour market behaviour. An analysis of the take-up of SA amongst a sample of SA eligible individuals is also undertaken that provides new evidence on the determinants of participation in the SA program in Canada. The analysis in this thesis uses the 1997 Canadian Out of Employment Panel dataset, a unique dataset that provides detailed information on the use of income support programs and employment patterns, and detailed information on a rich set of personal and household characteristics. The approach adopted in this thesis is to use a generalized probability transition model to examine the nature of the interface between income support programs and their effect on labour market outcomes. This approach allows the implications of changes in either program for use of the other program, and overall labour market outcomes, to be identified. The analysis of the SA take-up decision uses a discrete choice framework that explicitly takes account of the potential endogeneity of benefit levels available to the individual. A number of conclusions can be drawn from the analysis undertaken in this thesis. First, when the generosity of the SA program is reduced, individuals decrease use of both the SA and EI programs. Conversely, reducing the generosity of the EI program results in an increase in the use, albeit relatively small, of the SA program. The results of the analysis of the take-up decision of the SA program point to the key role of benefit levels and previous use of the program as determinants of the likelihood that an individual takes up SA.

A theme which currently dominates environmental regulation in Canada is for a strengthening of the "polluter pays" approach to environmental regulation. This trend sees those who impair the environment held increasingly financially responsible for their actions through such mechanisms as a new generation of statutory liabilities which include liability for environmental response and cleanup charges, the requirement of security in the event of environmental contamination, and the creation of statutory civil causes of action designed to assist claimants in recovering for losses resulting from environmental contamination. These mechanisms are supplemented by an increasing willingness by the courts to give serious consideration to innovative new approaches by private claimants to hold polluters civilly accountable for toxic tort related claims. As a result, those in Canada with potential exposure to this new generation of environmental liabilities will inevitably turn to the insurance industry for coverage. Ironically, it is these same new liabilities which will make it increasingly difficult for insurers to provide the desired coverage. Further, in the event that such coverage is provided, insurers will be required to be especially diligent in evaluating and delineating those environmental risks which they are prepared to cover. Many industrial and commercial enterprises will require environmental impairment insurance in order to carry out operations subject to environmental risk. Insurers providing environmental insurance in this context will effectively find themselves cast into the somewhat unlikely role of environmental regulators within Canadian society. For more than fifty years the insurance industry in Canada has provided a wide range of insurance products for liability resulting from impairment of the natural environment. In developing and marketing environmental impairment insurance products the insurance industry has primarily relied upon the risk-based analysis which it has historically utilized to provide coverage for more traditional insurance products such as fire, automobile, and marine insurance. However, it is submitted that the attempts by the industry to provide environmental impairment insurance has been fraught with problems, and the success of the products which have been provided has been limited. This in turn raises serious questions as to the ability of the insurance industry to assume responsibility for the regulation of environmental impairment in the future. It is the primary hypothesis of this thesis that the insurance industry has experienced significant difficulties in providing environmental impairment liability insurance in Canada, and that these difficulties are due in large part to the inability of the industry to accurately predict the incidence of loss associated with environmental impairment in Canada. Further, the difficulties with prediction experienced by the insurance industry are primarily the result of its failure to take into account perceptions of environmental risk by the Canadian public and by environmental decision-makers. Finally, this inability to accurately predict has been accompanied by the failure of the insurance industry to recognize the problem, resulting in overconfidence by the industry with respect to its environmental impairment liability products. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

Income support programs constitute an integral component of modern labour markets and represent significant fiscal commitments on the part of governments. This thesis examines two key income support programs in Canada and their impact on labour market outcomes, namely employment insurance (EI) and social assistance (SA). Together expenditures on EI and SA represented approximately 2 per cent of Canadian GDP in 1998-99 and influenced a range of labour market decisions relating to labour force participation, employment and unemployment spells. The analysis in this thesis provides new evidence on the role of the EI and SA programs on labour market outcomes by examining the interface between the programs and labour market behaviour. An analysis of the take-up of SA amongst a sample of SA eligible individuals is also undertaken that provides new evidence on the determinants of participation in the SA program in Canada. The analysis in this thesis uses the 1997 Canadian Out of Employment Panel dataset, a unique dataset that provides detailed information on the use of income support programs and employment patterns, and detailed information on a rich set of personal and household characteristics. The approach adopted in this thesis is to use a generalized probability transition model to examine the nature of the interface between income support programs and their effect on labour market outcomes. This approach allows the implications of changes in either program for use of the other program, and overall labour market outcomes, to be identified. The analysis of the SA take-up decision uses a discrete choice framework that explicitly takes account of the potential endogeneity of benefit levels available to the individual. A number of conclusions can be drawn from the analysis undertaken in this thesis. First, when the generosity of the SA program is reduced, individuals decrease use of both the SA and EI programs. Conversely, reducing the generosity of the EI program results in an increase in the use, albeit relatively small, of the SA program. The results of the analysis of the take-up decision of the SA program point to the key role of benefit levels and previous use of the program as determinants of the likelihood that an individual takes up SA. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

Ongoing research in the fields of genetics and biotechnology hold the promise of improved diagnosis and treatment of genetic diseases, and potentially the development of individually tailored pharmaceuticals and gene therapies. Difficulty, however, arises in determining how these services are to be evaluated and integrated equitably into public health care systems such as Canada's. The current context is one of increasing fiscal restraint on the part of governments, limited financial resources being dedicated to health care, and rising costs for new health care services and technologies. This has led to increasing public debate in the last few years about how to reform public health care, and whether we should prohibit, permit or perhaps even encourage private purchase of health care services. In Canada, some of these concerns have crystallized around the issue of gene patents and commercial genetic testing, in particular as illustrated by the case of Myriad Genetics' patented BRACAnalysis test for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. While most Canadians who currently access genetic services do so through the public health care system, for those with the means, private purchase is becoming an option. This situation raises serious concerns - about justice in access to health care; about continued access to safe and reliable genetic testing supported by unbiased patient information; and about the broader effects of commercialization for ongoing research and the Canadian public health care system. Commercial genetic testing presents a challenge to health care professionals, policy analysts, and academics concerned with the social, ethical and policy implications of new genetic technologies. Using the Myriad case as an exemplar, tools from moral philosophy, the social sciences, and health policy and law will be brought to bear on the larger issues of how as a society we should regulate commercial research and product development, and more coherently decide which services to cover under public health insurance and which to leave to private purchase. Generally, the thesis is concerned with the question of "how best to bring capital, morality, and knowledge into a productive and ethical relationship" (Rabinow 1999, 20).

Ongoing research in the fields of genetics and biotechnology hold the promise of improved diagnosis and treatment of genetic diseases, and potentially the development of individually tailored pharmaceuticals and gene therapies. Difficulty, however, arises in determining how these services are to be evaluated and integrated equitably into public health care systems such as Canada's. The current context is one of increasing fiscal restraint on the part of governments, limited financial resources being dedicated to health care, and rising costs for new health care services and technologies. This has led to increasing public debate in the last few years about how to reform public health care, and whether we should prohibit, permit or perhaps even encourage private purchase of health care services. In Canada, some of these concerns have crystallized around the issue of gene patents and commercial genetic testing, in particular as illustrated by the case of Myriad Genetics' patented BRACAnalysis test for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. While most Canadians who currently access genetic services do so through the public health care system, for those with the means, private purchase is becoming an option. This situation raises serious concerns - about justice in access to health care; about continued access to safe and reliable genetic testing supported by unbiased patient information; and about the broader effects of commercialization for ongoing research and the Canadian public health care system. Commercial genetic testing presents a challenge to health care professionals, policy analysts, and academics concerned with the social, ethical and policy implications of new genetic technologies. Using the Myriad case as an exemplar, tools from moral philosophy, the social sciences, and health policy and law will be brought to bear on the larger issues of how as a society we should regulate commercial research and product development, and more coherently decide which services to cover under public health insurance and which to leave to private purchase. Generally, the thesis is concerned with the question of "how best to bring capital, morality, and knowledge into a productive and ethical relationship" (Rabinow 1999, 20). / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate

A number of theoretical explanations seek to describe the factors that have led to the position of the United States as the last industrialized Western nation without a universal health care program. Theories focus on institutional arrangement, historic precedent, and the influence of the private sector and market forces. This study explores another factor: the role of underlying social values. The research examines differences in values among ten European countries, the United States and Canada, and analyzes the associations between the values that have been seen to contribute the individualism-collectivism dynamic in the United States. The hypothesis that equality and generalized trust are positively associated with universalism is only partially true. Equality is positively associated (B = .301, p < .001), while generalized trust is negatively associated with universalism (B = -.052, p < .001). Not only do Americans show lower levels of support for income equality and universalism than Europeans, but the effect of being American holds even after controlling for socio-demographic and religious variables (B = .044, p < .01). When the model tests the association of equality and trust on universalism in each region, it explains approximately 17 percent of the variance of universalism for the United States, and approximately 13 percent in Europe and Canada.