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No description available.

In the last decade or so political scientists have found the pluralist and marxist theoretical perspectives wanting for their inadequate attention to the causal role of states. In response, a burgeoning international literature has emerged which sets out to develop a state-centred theoretical perspective. This study is deeply informed by the emerging statist theoretical perspective. This thesis explores the relative capacity of the federal state to increase its autonomy in relation to the powerful oil MNCs in the period 1973-84 through an expanded federal presence in the energy sector. Whereas many scholars have assumed that a positive relationship existed between state capacity and the effectiveness of state intervention, Evans and Ikenberry for instance argue that an almost inverse relationship exists between the magnitude of intervention and its effectiveness. In Canada the literature on federalism has long been cognizant of the important role of states. This thesis therefore attempts to fuse the two bodies of literature, namely statism and federalism, in order to shed added light on the development of federal oil policy during 1973-84. The fact that the Canadian state is federal accounts for the recurring tendency for the energy issue to be redefined from its "obvious" focus on state-oil industry relations to intrastate issues (federal-provincial relations). A major contribution of this thesis is to explore the circumstances in which jurisdictional concerns deflect attention from policy substance - and also to those in which the reverse occurs. The thesis finds that when one level of government sought to become more independent of dominant societal actors, such as the oil industry, the intervention, whether so intended or not, was redefined to follow intergovernmental lines of conflict, rather than state-society lines of conflict. The nature of the issues also changed as distributional problems became subsumed under and were driven by the jurisdictional concerns of governments. This increased the policy interdependence between the two levels of government, squeezed out industry interests from intergovernmental deliberations, and generated intervention aimed directly at curtailing the power of the other level of government. This intervention which at first rendered the aggregate state less dependent on the oil industry by for example the creation of Petro-Canada, and later by the NEP, ultimately backfired on the state, at both levels. Important world oil market changes, intergovernmental conflicts and stalemates, deteriorating economic performance, industry reactions, and other mounting economic and political problems undermined the federal government's intervention and led to concessions for the industry. Such concessions were therefore the product of an increasingly irrelevant regulatory framework rather than purely a reflection of the power of the oil industry as such. This thesis confirms in general terms Ikenberry's finding that an inverse relationship exists between the degree and magnitude of intervention and its effectiveness. Evans and Ikenberry see this most clearly in relation to NOCs, that is in their propensity to evade state control schemes and to undermine centralized state control. In Canada the opposite change.exacerbated conflicts, namely the efforts by governments to shore up their capabilities as corporate actors and the emergence of "political federalism" which saw decision-making becoming centralized within each government, in the hands of decision-makers with jurisdiction-wide concerns. The ensuing process of intrajurisdictional policy coordination not only exacerbated conflicts but also oriented the emerging policy instruments along intergovernmental lines. Another contributing factor was the learning process that decision-makers underwent in the intergovernmental arena. In addition, 'policy mobilization' in the NEP served to link Petro-Canada closer to the political objectives of federal elites. Therefore, while the effects are the same in Canada, the process is almost the reverse of the one described by Evans and Ikenberry. Evans and Ikenberry see ineffective state intervention largely as the product of state actors mobilizing societal actors and state and societal actors becoming more closely linked. This study supplements the statist literature by noting that the attempts of a number of interventionist governmental actors to introduce comprehensive and more independent interventionist strategies heightened conflicts, generated inefficiencies and essentially caused the intervention to fail. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

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No description available.

The closure of the US border to Canadian live cattle and beef products after the confirmation of a single Canadian BSE case in May, 2003 seriously jeopardized the Canadian beef cattle industry, which had relied heavily on exports. The inventory of cattle rapidly increased and farmers were paid record low prices for live cattle. But at the same time, the cattle slaughtering industry experienced a substantial increase in profits. The enlarged price spread between the value of live cattle and beef steak raised concerns about oligopsony market power in the live cattle market. This thesis investigates the hypothesis that the Canadian slaughtering industry exercised this market power in the months following the discovery of BSE. Two models, the conjectural variation model from the New Empirical Industrial Organization and an asymmetric price transmission model were used and the results from both models do not support the hypothesis of oligopsony market power.

The impacts of tariffication on Canadian milk producers were estimated via supply, price and trade flow parameters using a spatial price equilibrium model applied to milk production regions of Canada and the United States. / Two price scenarios were put forward because of supply management in Canada. The first incorporated producer prices while the second used shadow prices for Canadian producers, defined as the producer price less a reduction in price which accounts for the value of production quota. The hypothesis that tariffication reduces milk production in Canada to the extent that U.S. producers increase their exports to Canada was partly supported in scenario one but not in scenario two. Specific tariffs of $11.00/hl prevented U.S. imports to reach Qu 'ebec and Ontario. However, the rest of Canada increased its imports from Great Lakes to the detriment of Quebec and Ontario. Consequently, production decreased slightly in Qu 'ebec and increased in Ontario, whereas prices decreased significantly in both provinces. Scenario two showed ability of Qu 'ebec and Ontario to withstand American competition. Prices and production level remained unchanged while export flows to the rest of Canada increased to the detriment of the Great Lakes. / The present study investigated only a specific aspect of the tariffication proposal in the GATT and does not intend not to reflect the very complex aspects of GATT negotiations. The findings of this analysis must be interpreted with this caveat. Further studies considering other plausible tariffication scenarios or effective tariffs on an individual dairy product basis would broaden our understanding of the potential implications of tariffication.

This study has compared the effect of milk pricing systems on the selection goals of dairy producers in two provinces of Canada, British Columbia (BC), and Quebec. These provinces were chosen for comparison as BC produces milk largely for a fluid market, while Quebec produces milk for a manufacturing market. Within BC, due to a higher utilization and higher milk price, the value/kg of skim on Vancouver Island was higher than that of the Vancouver Lower Mainland over the study period 1963-1982. Between the two provinces, the value/kg of skim in BC was found to be consistently higher than in Quebec over the 20 year period, while the value of fat was higher in Quebec than BC. In BC in 1980, the value of a kilogram of skim was approximately $0.30, whereas its value in Quebec was only $0.20. During the 1960s in BC, the value of skim represented one half the value of milk, and in 1982 it comprised two thirds of the value of milk, as compared to Quebec, where fat represented 43% of the value of milk. Net economic values were calculated by subtracting the dollar cost of production associated with the components of milk (carrier, fat and protein), from the gross value/kg of skim and fat. These values showed that the value/kg of protein was negative and decreasing in both BC and Quebec. The economic value/kg of butterfat has been consistently positive and increasing over the study period in BC and Quebec to $3.27 and $3.34/kg respectively in 1982. The relative economic values of carrier, fat and protein in BC and Quebec in 1982 were 0.08:1.00:-0.10 and 0.06:1.00:-0.12 respectively, which puts moderate selection on carrier and fat, and negative selection on protein. Selection index weights for carrier, fat and protein revealed that the BC dairy industry has always applied positive selection to the carrier and fat portion, and negative selection to the protein portion of milk. In 1982 the selection weights were 0.087:1.253:-1.189. The Quebec index has shown more fluctuation that BC, with less selection against solids compared to BC; (0.050:1.280:-0.657). Theoretical genetic goals of the BC dairy industry have been consistent at approximately 3.0% butterfat, 2.0% protein and 95.0% carrier. The genetic goals in Quebec have undergone wide fluctuations, but generally have signalled the dairy producer to increase both butterfat and protein. The goals of the two industries are now very similar, with the exception that Quebec continues to place higher value on solids than BC. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

This study is concerned with- the effects of changes in industrial concentration on average costs of production in 17 Canadian 4—digit food manufacturing industries over the period 1961-1982. The model employed is a dual Translog cost function adapted to include a concentration variable (Herfindahl index) and technical change, and is estimated using pooling techniques to allow simultaneous analysis of all 17 industries. The results indicate that there was a significant relationship between concentration and average costs for this sample. In particular, there appears to have been a decrease in average costs for low-concentration industries as concentration increased, ceteris paribus, while in high-concentration industries, increases in concentration led to increases in costs. Concentration changes have also had an effect on the relative shares of factors of production for these industries. An evaluation of employment effects across industries indicates that the benefits in efficiency due to increases in concentration in low-concentration industries must be weighed against apparent decreases in the overall employment (of labour) for these industries. Alternatively, the efficiency losses in high-concentration industries appear to have been offset by increases in overall employment as concentration has increased. Thus, depending on the criterion used, relative concentration effects may have been beneficial or detremental to social welfare; the outcome is not unequivocal. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate