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Abstract:
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From Introduction:
"Members of the Department of Economics at McMaster University are participating in a major eco-research programme at the University which is funded by the Government of Canada and which focuses on the restoration of the Hamilton Harbour and the harbour eco-system. The McMaster research programme encompasses researchers from the humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, health sciences, and engineering. While much of the research is discipline oriented (such as engineers studying water flows in the harbour and how this effects the distribution of toxic substances and biologists studying the effects of toxic substances on bird populations), a considerable amount of inter-disciplinary work is being undertaken (such as psychologists, sociologists, and economists joining to prepare surveys to evaluate attitudes toward the environment and to acquire contingent valuations of different environmental projects).
"Laboratory methodology is becoming established as an effective tool for evaluating economic theories about individual and market behaviour and for testbedding institutions designed to implement regulatory policies (Plott, 1991). Experimental economics laboratories are established in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Japan. As part of the eco-research programme, McMaster University has established the first dedicated experimental economics laboratory in Canada. Work is proceeding on the study of a pollution emission permit trading scheme which has been proposed for nitrous oxides and sulfur oxides in Canada (Godby et al., 1994, 1995; Mestelman at al., 1993; Muller and Mestelman, 1994). Research is directed towards studying the benefits of permit banking, the trading of permit entitlements, market uncertainty, and industry concentration (Brown Kruse et al., 1995). In addition to studying market based regulation schemes, researchers at the McMaster Experimental Economics Laboratory are studying voluntary allocations by individuals of resources to group goods (such as environmental clean-up) and alternative forms of collective decision-making for determining environmental standards (Chan, Godby et al., 1994a, 1994b; Chan, Mestelman et al., 1995a, 1995b)."
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