Over the past number of decades, Canadian governments (both federal and provincial) have made commitments to preserving and protecting the natural environment and to using its components efficiently in order to benefit both current and future generations. These commitments, this thesis argues, translate into duties to strive for sustainable economic growth and intergenerational equity. One of the key challenges is to figure out which are the best policy tools and legal instruments that are capable of leading Canada towards these goals. Unfortunately, the economic measures typically employed by decision makers (GDP, GNP, productivity) tend to exclude or under represent natural capital, which may lead to decisions which actually degrade and deplete the natural environment and therefore violate the aforementioned legal commitments. One clear strategy to help Canada meet its commitments to sustainable economic growth and intergenerational equity is to ensure it uses its natural capital as efficiently as possible. This thesis proposes that green productivity is a useful tool for improving decision making because it considers the efficiency of use of natural capital a criteria important to helping achieve both sustainable economic growth and intergenerational equity. Green productivity is presented in this thesis as an umbrella term for productivity measures which include or account for, in some way, the (mis)use of natural capital. Specifically, the dissertation discuses three measures of green productivity used within economics: natural resource productivity, environmentally adjusted productivity, and natural capital and the residual. In addition to exploring the differences between these three measures of green productivity, the dissertation shows that they can be used to improve decision making in a number of ways, including as a broader public policy agenda item used by the government to target sustainability objectives. Additionally, measures of green productivity can be used to identify more specific policy and legal instrument goals, in designing and evaluating legal instruments, and in stakeholder consultation. For example, natural resource productivity can help identify leaders and laggards, thereby allowing decision makers to target certain industries or areas which are lagging. It can also help decision makers learn from leading jurisdictions which may ultimately lead to the implementation of new ideas in legal instrument design. The dissertation concludes with a case study of one type of green productivity measure (water productivity) in order to illustrate how the information it produces could be applied by decision makers.

We examine the working mechanisms and efficiencies of zoning (regulation of floor area ratios and land-use types) and fiscal instruments (tolls, property taxes, and income transfer), and extend the instrument choice theory to include the congestion of road and nonroad infrastructure. We show that in the spatial model with heterogeneous households the standard first-best instruments do not work because they trigger distortion of spatial allocations. In addition, because of the household heterogeneity and real estate market distortions, zoning could be less efficient than, as efficient as, or more efficient than pricing instruments. However, when the zoning enacted deviates from the optimum, zoning not only becomes inferior to congestion charges but is also likely to reduce welfare. In addition, we provide a global platform that extends the instrument choice theory of pollution control to include various types of externalities and a wide range of discrete policy deviations for any reasons beyond cost–benefit uncertainties.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka faktorer som var viktigast i valet av instrument för musiklärarstudenter. Studien letar också efter samband mellan faktorer och olika instrumentval. Tidigare forskning lyfter fram en mängd olika faktorer som spelar roll vid valet av musikinstrument. Instrumentets klang och föräldrars stöd utmärker sig som viktigast. Forskningen visar också att det finns tydliga könsskillnader i valet av instrument. Studiens syfte undersöks genom en enkät. Enkäten kartlägger bakgrundsfaktorer som kön, ålder, föräldrars uppmuntran, musicerande i omgivningen, musiklyssning och socioekonomisk status i samband med instrumentvalet. Resultatet bekräftar delvis tidigare forskning kring viktiga faktorer i instrumentvalet. Testerna av sambanden mellan faktorerna var i många fall inte signifikativa, vilket gör att flera samband inte kan säkerställas. Familj, ålder vid instrumentvalet och kön var bakgrundsfaktorer som visade sig vara påverkande i valet. Avslutningsvis diskuteras tidigare forskning i förhållande till resultatet. Här förs en diskussion kring de mönster som resultatet visat och komplexiteten av att kartlägga vilka faktorer som är påverkande i valet av instrument. / The purpose of this study is to investigate which factors are the most important in the choice of instrument for future music teachers. The study also investigates the interconnections between different factors and their influence on choice of instrument. Previous research highlights a wide range of factors that play a role in the selection of musical instruments, among which the sound of the instrument and parental support are considered to be the most significant. The research also shows that there are clear gender differences as regards the choice of instrument. The research questions considered is examined through a survey. Background factors such as gender, age, parental encouragement, exposure to music making, music listening and socioeconomic status are considered in relation to the instrument selection. The results partly confirm previous research on which are the key factors in the choice of instrument. The interconnection between the factors and choices were in many cases not statistically significant, which means that such conclusions cannot be drawn. The background factors found to be most significant were family, age at which the choice was made and gender. In the discussion section, previous research is compared and contrasted in relation to these results. A discussion on trends in the results and the difficulty in establishing which factors influence the choice of instruments concludes the study.

We examine the working mechanisms and efficiencies of zoning (regulation of floor area ratios and land-use types) and fiscal instruments (tolls, property taxes, and income transfer), and extend the instrument choice theory to include the congestion of road and nonroad infrastructure. We show that in the spatial model with heterogeneous households the standard first-best instruments do not work because they trigger distortion of spatial allocations. In addition, because of the household heterogeneity and real estate market distortions, zoning could be less efficient than, as efficient as, or more efficient than pricing instruments. However, when the zoning enacted deviates from the optimum, zoning not only becomes inferior to congestion charges but is also likely to reduce welfare. In addition, we provide a global platform that extends the instrument choice theory of pollution control to include various types of externalities and a wide range of discrete policy deviations for any reasons beyond cost–benefit uncertainties.