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Economists will provide most of the public-facing commentary from academics on the big $170 announcement today. And good! Economists are great and have contributed and will contribute so much to this discussion. But other fields matter on this decision a lot too!
Ethicists: how much should we care about the well being of a person 50 years from now compared to someone today?
IR Scholars: Canada moving is often framed as leadership - that it'll help bring others along and towards a global price or something like it. Is there merit to this? Will Canada's actions influence the choices other countries make?
Political scientists!: Is there evidence that big carbon prices are a political winner or loser? If there's a loser, how real are the possibilities of complete policy reversal and even rescinding the current tax after another election?
Fiscal Federalism Experts: Is this going to create huge intergovernmental tensions? If so is there any policy option the federal government can use to dissipate them? Or do politics make this impossible?
anyway....just a thought. economists are great, I'm not anything but if you had to call me something you'd probably have to call me an economist. I do think it's worth remembering that we need to call on expertise from many disciplines to make sense of what is and will happen.
