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Inuit populations meet a large portion of their food needs by eating country food in which pollutants are concentrated. Despite the fact that they contain pollutants, the consumption of country food has many health, social, economic, and cultural benefits. A risk determination process was set up in order to help regional health authorities of Nunavik to deal with this particular issue. Based on Nunavik health authorities' objectives to encourage the region's inhabitants to change their dietary habits, and on both the risks and the benefits of eating country food, several management options were developed. The options aimed at reducing exposure to contaminants by either substituting certain foods with others that have a lower contaminant content or by store-bought foods. This article aims at assessing the potential economic impact of these risk management options before being implemented. Relevant economic data (aggregate income and monetary outlays for the purchase of food and equipment required for food production by households) were collected and identified to serve as a backdrop for the various replacement scenarios. Results show that household budgets, and the regional economy, are not significantly affected by the replacement of contaminated foods with the purchase of store-bought meat, and even less so if the solution involves replacing contaminated foods with other types of game hunted in the region. When financial support is provided by the state, the households can even gain some monetary benefits. Results show that public health authorities' recommended changes to dietary habits among the Inuit of Nunavik would not necessarily involve economic constraints for Inuit households.

This paper uses micro data from a random survey carried out in the region of Quebec City, Canada, to estimate a model of labor supply in the underground economy. The model assumes that the individual's gross wage rate in the regular sector is parametric while his gross labor earnings in the underground sector are a concave function of hours of work. This distinction between the two sectors is used to generate a simple separation result between preferences and the magnitude of underground labor market activities. This result implies that the individual's labor supply in the underground economy is generally a negative function of his net wage rate in the regular sector. The separation result also implies a set of restrictions on the parameters of the reduced form of the model, which are imposed using minimum distance methods of estimation. Various generalized method of moments specification tests allow us to verify the validity of these restrictions. According to our results, the marginal tax rates embodied in the Quebec tax-transfer system are an important determinant of the decision to participate in the underground sector.

La qualification est centrale relativement à l’activité du juriste. En effet, les règles de droit positif ne reçoivent application qu’au moment où les faits obtiennent une certaine qualification. Cette réalité prend une dimension particulière dans le cas du contrat, lequel est l’objet de multiples dispositions législatives. Le législateur a cru bon, au fil du temps, de réglementer diverses formes contractuelles, en particulier les contrats nommés. Sont opposés à ceux-ci les contrats innommés, pure création extralégislative.La détermination de la nature du contrat passe par un processus de qualification indépendant de notions connexes et qui doit s’éloigner d’une méthode uniquement intuitive. La qualification du contrat se fera principalement par l’analyse des obligations en vue de déterminer l’obligation fondamentale ou la prestation caractéristique du contrat. Il faut à cet égard écarter comme instrument de qualification les notions d’objet et de cause du contrat parce qu’elles sont peu révélatrices.Le procédé de qualification est en soi une analyse objective et postérieure à la conclusion du contrat. Les parties auront donc peu d’influence sur la qualification qui sera ultérieurement donnée à leur contrat, celle-ci étant une question de droit en principe réservée au juge. Ainsi, les conséquences d’une mauvaise qualification par les parties varieront selon les circonstances.Characterization is essential to legal reasoning. Rules of law can only be applied once particular facts have been characterized in a certain way. Contract law cannot escape this reality since all agreements are subject to a variety of legal provisions. The law recognizes many contractual forms, which are deemed « nominate contracts », as opposed to « innominate contracts », which are the result of practical innovation.The nature of a contract is determined by a particular method which must exclude mere intuition. Characterization will basically be achieved by the analysis of the obligations contained in the contract. This analysis will focus on the identification of a fundamental obligation or a caracteristic prestation. The author argues that the notions of object and cause of the contract do not play a central role, as they often fail to reveal the true nature of a contract.Characterization of a contract is in itself an objective process taking place after the exchange of consent. Parties will have limited influence on the characterization of their agreement, since this is a question of law and is left to the determination of the court. The consequences of a mistaken characterization by the parties will differ according to the circumstances

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