Monthly Archives: February 2011
Surrogate motherhood: the case for commodification
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have one. So do Elton John and David Furnish, and that woman in the New York Times. They all have children borne by surrogate mothers. In Canada, as in the UK, Australia, France and several other countries, it is illegal to pay surrogate mothers for anything more than their expenses — […]
Tatonnement: in Walras, PSST, and monetary disequilibrium
Walrasian general equilibrium theory models the economy as a system of demand and supply equations. The quantities of goods traded, and the prices at which they are traded, are the solution to that system of equations. Who solves those equations? A fictional Walrasian auctioneer, who calls out prices at random, asks people their demands and […]
Statistics Canada under siege
If there's one thing that has prevented me from despairing completely about the débâcle that is and will be the 2011 census, it's been my faith in the professionalism and expertise of the people who work at Statistics Canada. Their present political masters may be deaf to reason, but this is only a temporary state […]
Why is Canadian GDP Growth Higher Under Liberal Governments?
Canadian economic growth is about two percentage points higher under Liberal governments. At least, that's what my colleagues Stephen Ferris and Marcel Voia found in their recent article in the Canadian Journal of Economics (earlier ungated version here). This is a large impact. For example, if the economy was growing at 1 percent under a Conservative government, […]
Organic Milk and Japanese Cars
In the Spring of 2009, the Dairy Farmers of Canada launched the "100% Canadian milk campaign." Products displaying the logo shown on the right are guaranteed to be made with 100% Canadian milk. I'll admit it. As someone who lived through the British BSE outbreak of the 1980s, I'm slightly paranoid about milk safety. I'm […]
Excess demands for apples, bonds, and money in a representative agent economy
1. Assume a representative agent model in which everyone has exactly the same supply and demand for apples. No apples get traded in equilibrium. A law which lowers the price of apples will create an excess demand for apples, but will have no effect on anything else. People will now want to buy apples, but […]
Retirement savings plans: brilliant economics, lousy psychology
The US has 401(k)s and IRAs. The UK has personal pension schemes. Canada has Registered Retirement Savings Plans or RRSPs. Economists typically support such plans because of their effects on savings. The plans also make the tax system fairer, granting all taxpayers access to the tax advantages enjoyed by employer pension plans. But the truly brilliant part […]
Videogames and the sexual division of labour
Consider a model in which individuals have a fixed amount of time to allocate between three activities: paid work, household production, and gaming. Each one of these activities requires an investment of effort and human capital, and each provides rewards, either monetary or non-monetary.
The Politician’s Syllogism, the minimum wage and the welfare effects of random redistributions of income
We're all familiar with the concept, but for those who weren't aware that it had been formalised, given a title and a Wikipedia entry, the Politician's Syllogism goes like this: We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this. And so it is with the minimum wage. Poverty and inequality are problems […]
Popular support for increased inequality?
One part of Canada's tax-transfer system increases inequality of wealth. That's not an unfortunate side-effect of the policy; it is deliberately designed that way. It would be very easy to design it differently so that it did not increase inequality.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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