Monthly Archives: April 2011
Ranking Prime Ministers: Are Tory Times Really Tough Times?
There is an old adage in Canadian political lore that “Tory times are tough times” and that Liberal governments have generally seen more prosperous times. Given that every Prime Minister since Confederation has been either a Liberal or a Conservative, it should be a relatively simple matter to find indicators rank the economic performance of […]
A monetarist search model of keynesian unemployment
This post was inspired by Steve Williamson's post on Roger Farmer. Steve has a model(pdf) that he sees as capturing the essence of what Roger is saying. Leave aside the question of whether Steve's model is a good interpretation of Roger. I like Steve's model because it's clean and simple. But Steve's model is a […]
The Canadian Taylor Curve — and the direction of causality
This is from my Carleton colleague Hashmat Khan: There is a strong negative relationship between investment and unemployment in Canada. The data on private business fixed investment from the past 35 years confirm it. The measure of investment is non-residential structures + residential structures + machinery & equipment. The correlation between investment (relative to GDP) […]
Blogging and the iron law of oligarchy
Earlier this year, the New York Times announced (once again) the death of blogging. Immediately, signs of blogging's demise appeared all around me. The Palgrave Econolog, which ranks blogs, went off-line (it's now back). Posts on Worthwhile Canadian Initiative have become less frequent. The latest confirming instance: Scott Sumner is taking a break from blogging.
Jam tomorrow and jam yesterday, but never jam today
My sister has a theory: every policy initiative is always introduced either too late or too early for her to benefit from it. It is not so much a theory as an empirical observation. As such, it may reflect bias on the part of the observer. My sister and I are 1/4 Yorkshirewomen, and like […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: The April 1st Edition
Economics Departments across the country and around the world are engaged in a competitive struggle with other programs and disciplines for the hearts and minds of young students as they make choices regarding what program of study to enter out of high school. Once in university, the struggle is not over as Economics Departments are […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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