Volume 49, numéro 4, octobre–décembre 1973

EN :

The first part of this paper describes the methods by which Quebec universities are financed and stresses the importance of non-accounted expenditures and the relative contribution of the three main sources of financing, namely the federal and provincial governments and the students.

The second part investigates the normative aspects of the methods used. Government intervention can be based on three grounds: on the social aspect of the good, on the redistribution objective, and lastly, on the greater indivisibility of university formation costs. It is shown that the present knowledge of the production function and the results on returns to higher education and to university research do not make it possible to determine an optimal amount of resources for this sector.

Government intervention in university affairs can take different forms and five principles are formulated as a guide for the establishment of a new financing formula. Finally, the role of student fees is studied as a means to promote efficiency in universities.

EN :

This article combines the analysis of regional economics, the constant-market-share analysis and the input-output analysis in order to assess the impact of export growth on the main economic variables of a regional economy. The model is first tested for a regional economy by breaking up export growth rates for manufactured products into its various effects. The dynamism of the trade zone to which the regional economy belongs, the production biases on the pattern of trade flows and the cost competitiveness of the economy are then estimated. It is assumed that these estimates reflect the relative importance of the structural and exogenous factors relative to the cyclical and endogenous factors on export performance.

The general equilibrium implications of the estimates in terms of direct and indirect employment effects are thus spelled out by the use of available input-output data. The results indicate that Quebec's export performance is not hindered by the geographical pattern of export flows nor by the product-mix of its exports. However, the indicator of cost competitiveness indicates a slight deterioration on foreign markets.

EN :

European monetary integration policy nowadays centers on the search for a common money by opposition to a single monetary unit; but many problems remain as to the means of achieving this end.

After reviewing the perennial discussions concerned with the foundations of this monetary integration (e.g. the problems of the optimum of a monetary area, where Mr. Bourguinat challenges the criteria based on differential factor mobility or on the relative degree of "openness"), the study analyses the narrowing of margins in the light of recent experience.

Considering the events of 1972 and 1973 the narrowing of margins is a very difficult task; it means nothing less than creating for the E.E.C. members an island of stability in a world environment becoming evermore flexible.

The freedom which has been lost on exchange rate fluctuations seems to have resulted in an increased instability of par values (e.g. the successive revaluations of the deutschmark, the florin, etc.).

For the achievement of a truly common money the author suggests an alternative approach: it consists in issuing, side by side with national currencies, a unit called an Europa; serving initially as a unit of account, the Europa would gradually become a true means of payment.

EN :

This fiscal essay tries to specify the economic variables which have an effect upon the personal income tax during a business cycle.

After clearing out the concept of trend elasticity and cyclical elasticity, we propose a model based on the concept of elasticity which will permit us to see the income increases due to the overall increase in employment (or a decrease in the rate of unemployment), and those produced by the global increase in wealth (such as the increase in per capita revenue due to productivity, inflation and so on).

Then we apply this model to the federal personal income tax collected in Quebec for ten income classes and we find that there is a difference between the average taxation rate due to the increment of employment and the average taxation rate due to wealth increase and consequently at the elasticity level also. However, the difference is not statistically significant.

So, our theoretical model and its application explains partly why the income elasticity of the personal income tax appears to be greater in periods of decline in economic activity and tends to abate fairly sharply as expansionary momentum is restored.

EN :

Classical regional and multiregional models were limited in scope and usefulness as they failed to integrate explicitly locational factors, especially on the supply side.

Two types of models, the attraction model and the profile model, allow to treat this problem adequately. They are presented in their most recent formulation that improves on earlier versions.

Regional spill-over effects are underlined as being essential in the understanding of multiregional growth patterns; they are explicitly integrated in the aforementioned models, which thus take care of market potentials and clustering through spread of external economies.

The models mentioned are currently applied to Germany, Spain, and the regions of the enlarged Common Market (project "FLEUR").