EN :

International monetary questions were chosen by the economics section of ACFAS as the theme of a round table held at the University of Ottawa in May 1978. This article summarizes the discussions amongst Professors V. Leroy and B. Decaluwé, and the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada, Alain Jubinville. Each participant outlined his views on the principal issues: flexible echange rates, intervention policies, and resevre requirements. A question and answer period followed the presentations and the topics raised included the role of multinational enterprises, the plight of the Third World, the significance of the accumulation of petro-dollars, and the effects of a weaker dollar on the international payments system. The article then compares the approaches taken by Professors Decaluwé, Leroy and Cameron in the articles regrouped in this issue of L'Actualité Economique as well as that taken by Professor Nappi in his article in the April-June 1978 issue. In conclusion the questions raised at the colloquium are updated by reference to three new elements which have appeared in the last year: the economic summit in Bonn, the European Monetary System, and the agreed second allocation of Special Drawing Rights.

EN :

In this paper the author outlines the forces underlying the present international monetary system. Since creation, in Bretton Woods, of the International Monetary Fund, two important amendments have been brought to the statutes of this institution. First, in July 1969, a Special Drawing mechanism was created; second, following the April 1978 amendment, the Special Drawing Right system is no longer based on gold. The fundamental reasons for this evolution and the problems raised by the present situation are emphasized.

EN :

It is now recognized that a viable international monetary system must rest on a combination of only two of the following three principles: (1) respect of the national economic policies, (2) free convertibility of currencies, (3) fixed parities with gold and the dollar. The author emphasizes some arguments against flexible exchange rates. He concludes that the present international monetary system has resolved the fundamental ambiguity of the Bretton Woods system by permitting flexibility of exchange rates.

EN :

A second series of amendments to the Bretton Woods charter has recently been approved by the IMF Board of Directors. This article provides a commentary on the negotiations leading up to this reform and attaches particular importance to those aspects which concern the Third World. The article analyzes the nature of the IMF and the role that it has played within the international community, before examining the reform proposals and the failure to satisfy the limited aspirations of the Third World countries. The principal topics considered include: the link between development finance and international monetary reform, the propositions studied by the Committee of Twenty, and the decisions taken by the Interim Committee at Jamaica in 1976.

EN :

The objectif of this paper is to give a microeconomic foundation to misleading advertising in order to derive a method to evaluate its social costs both in terms of efficiency and in terms of distribution. We develop first the approach leading to the concept of demand based on information biased by misleading advertising. Then we set up a model leading to an analytical form of the demand function for the different agents and we discuss the econometric problem of estimating it. We can then develop a formula to measure the social costs of misleading advertising. Finally, we show through an example how that formula can be used.

EN :

This paper explores in quantitative terms the potential effects on trade flows as a result of Canadian tariff preferences in favor of the developing countries instituted in 1974. The paper develops a model of trade creation and trade diversion due to preferences based on imperfect substitution, within each product category, between preference-granting, preference-receiving and non-preferred countries. This model depart from the usual assumption of the customs union theory that countries trade in perfect substitutes. The model is then applied to the 1978 trade date under BTN chapters 25 - 99 on a 4-digit classification. One major conclusion of the paper is that the assumption of perfect substitution tends to overstate the magnitude of trade creation and trade diversion, while the method based on less than perfect substitutability seems to offer more realistic estimates of the actual impact of trade preferences.

EN :

In this paper, efficiency of artisanal fishing firms is measured using a method elaborated by Yotopoulos and Lau (AER, March 1973). It shows that this method could be used by fishery managers to find new criteria when it comes to decide which fishermen should be granted a license, when entry into the fisheries ought to be limited. The main results may however appear surprising in that they reveal that as a whole fishermen are price efficient, although those more open to new technology have a more business like behavior and tend to be more efficient than the others. Finally those with a larger experience of the labor market outside fisheries reveal a behavior consistant with a perception of the opportunity cost of their labor higher than that shown by those with little experience outside of fisheries.