Background
PLOURDE, Charles Gordon was born in 1938 in Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada.
PLOURDE, Charles Gordon was born in 1938 in Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada.
Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts (Mathematics) Queens University, Kingston, Canada, 1959, 1965. Doctor of Philosophy University Minnesota, 1970.
Instructor Mathematics, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, 1963-1965. Assistant Professor of Economics, University West. Ontario, London, Ontario, 1969-1976. Visiting Scholar, Concordia University, Montreal, 1979.
Visiting
Association Professor, University Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, 1983.
Association Professor of Economics, York University, Toronto, Canada, since 1977.
My early research concentrated on the problems related to the optimal management of dynamic, replenishable natural resources. These include fisheries, forests and common property, unappropriated natural reservoirs, such as air and watersheds which may become polluted or abused. Management policy was directed toward providing quotas or rules for individual agents and optimal taxation.
This direction of analysis was applied to a specific cod
fishery in Newfoundland where the hypothesis that unemployment benefits were attracting excess employment into the fishery was tested. Although I have maintained an ongoing interest in the practical management of replenishable natural resources, my main interest at present involves the various aspects of uncertainty in the area. Of particular interest is the inability to collect data on sizes of fish stocks and hence problems in estimating production functions.
(Most fishery management analysis assumes known cost or production functions.) One interesting manifestation of this stock uncertainty is the inefficiency of wage contracts in fishing and the development of cropsharing arrangements.