Kristian S. Palda

The impact of campaign expenditures on political competition in the French legislative elections of 1993

We use regression analysis to estimate the effect that campaign money had on the votes of challengers and incumbents in the 1993 elections to the French legislative assembly. Incumbent candidates can at best expect to win 1.01% of the popular vote for each extra franc they spend per registered voter in their district. Challengers can expect to win at least twice as much as this. Simulations show that if campaign spending ceilings were halved, incumbents would have gained an extra ten percent of the popular vote over their closest challenging rivals. The regression analysis also suggests that voters react negatively to candidates who rely heavily on their own money for their outlays and reward candidates who rely on contributions from private individuals. These results suggest that campaign spending ceilings may inhibit political competition, and that voters may resist a candidate who relies on narrow sources of funding.

Does Advertising Influence Votes? An Analysis of the 1966 and 1970 Quebec Elections

The intensive use of paid time and space in mass media by political parties and candidates during electoral campaigns in Western democracies has given rise to the widespread opinion that advertising expenditures can and do influence the outcome of the voting process. If this were indeed so it could be argued that parties and candidates with rich coffers might, at least in some measure, buy their way into seats of power by lavish outlay on advertising. The continuous debate in Canada and other democratic countries on the desirability of limiting campaign funds attests to the importance of this issue.

Electoral Turnout in Rational Voting and Consumption Perspectives

A single-equation econometric model of voting participation behavior is developed within the context of rational voter and household investment-consumption theories. The model is tested using aggregate electoral district-level data from 10 Canadian provincial elections and the 1970 Canadian census. The regression estimates show substantial consistency across the various elections which comprise this studys data base. Despite considerable collinearity, education and income appear to be strongly related to voting turnout in a manner which is consistent with the predictions of economic theory.

Technological intensity: Concept and measurement☆

Abstract Technological intensity, the degree to which scientific research effort contributes to an industrys productivity increase and/or revenue enhancement, is commonly measured by the industrys ratio of own-performed research to its output. If this R&D/output percentage is taken as an indicator of the need for public support, it is seriously misleading: an industry benefits as well by research undertaken by the foreign affiliates of its member firms, by its first- and higher-round suppliers, and by university and government laboratories. This view is supported by evidence from Canada.

Czech privatization and corporate governance

Abstract The rapid privatization of the Czech economy has contributed to its first rank in the economic performance of the post-communist countries. The claim that 75 per cent of its GDP originates in the private sector may, however, be only formally true. Many of the voucher-privatized former state-owned enterprises and financial institutions are still influenced through core stakes in their share capital by the Fund of National Property and by their mutual interdependence. This article concludes that full privatization will likely be attained through a hybrid of German and American corporate governance systems.

Appropriability and Public Support of R&D in Canada

This paper investigates the extent to which considerations of inappropriability, a form of market failure, guide federal support to private industrial R&D in Canada. Statistics of the overall allocation of subsidies between grants and tax credits show little evidence at an inappropriability rationale. Econometric analysis of grant distributions, using a recently proposed operational concept of inappropriability, supports this conclusion at an aggregate level, but gives different results when a particular grant program is probed.

International comparisons of R&D effort: The case of the Canadian pharmaceutical industry

Abstract The Canadian federal government, anxious to stimulate innovation, announced recently a policy objective for the economy: the attainment of industrial research expenditures reaching 1.5 percent of the gross national product. The proposed substantial increase over the current level is rationalized by comparison with economy-wide research intensities (GERD/GNP) in other OECD countries. This paper questions the economic validity and policy relevance of international aggregate comparisons. It argues that inter-country comparisons should take place at individual industry levels where technologies are similar and proposes a methodology for formulating RD this Canadian industry presumably does not require governmental attention to its R&D activities.