Monthly Archives: June 2011
Adverse selection and single-blind peer review
The American Economics Association has announced that, as of July 1, 2011, its journals will be moving from double-blind to single-blind peer review. The identity of a paper's author will now be revealed to any potential referees. The Association gives three reasons for its decision: "Easy access to search engines increasingly limits the effectiveness of […]
Y tu actual rate of interest tambien, tambien
Damn. This is getting too easy. It's like shooting sitting pheasants! Hoisted from comments: reason says , in response to my last post, "The problem is with 'M'. It isn't well defined and it isn't under the direct control of the central bank." [Update: My response, in a nutshell: "The problem is with 'r'. It […]
A 90% Subsidy to Political Riding Associations?
While the per-vote subsidy is being phased out, it is only one of four subsidies given to political parties, with the other 3 being as follows: A tax rebate to persons making a political donation, including a 75% rebate to those donating $400 or less (Sec. 127(3) of the Income Tax Act) A 50% spending […]
The sources of the Canadian recession and recovery
This is one of those posts where I present data in graph form so that people – in particular, I – can get a feel for what's been happening. Today's entry is on how the various components of aggregate demand contributed to the recession and recovery. We sometimes get too focused on the particularities of […]
Y tu natural rate of interest tambien
In the olden days there was a debate between the Old Monetarists and the Old Keynesians. The Old Keynesians said that the Old Monetarists' MV=PY was useless, because (desired) velocity was not constant. Milton Friedman responded with what philosophers call the "Y tu mama tambien" argument. The Old Keynesian multiplier wasn't constant either.
Provincial Revenues: Another View
Well, in response to a comment in my last post asking how much variation in per capita revenues there is across the provinces, I've provided a graph of real per capita revenues (1997 dollars) for each province for the period 1975 to 2008 with the data that was used to compile the average and median […]
Seriously Strange Marginal Tax Rates – Ontario Edition
One of my less fun jobs at Nexreg is taking care of payroll. This involves using the Canada Revenue Agency's very helpful Payroll Deductions Online Calculator. My only complaint with the calculator is that it is cumbersome if you would like to play around with the numbers. Suppose I give an employee a $400/mth raise; […]
What do you think of the American Economic Association’s decision to end double-blind peer review?
The American Economic Association's decision to switch from double-blind to single-blind reviewing has attracted much attention, for example: http://crookedtimber.org/2011/06/05/should-the-american-economic-review-drop-double-anonymous-review/ http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/leading-economics-journals-drop-double-blind-peer-review/33462
Literary You-genics
In days of old, literature was subject to strict population controls. As John A Hobson put it back in 1910: "Before the arts of printing and of reading became common, most of the great deeds of man, his finest thoughts, his noblest feelings, perished for lack of enduring record and easy accurate communication…. Almost all that […]
Revenue Deficiency, Health Care Sustainability and the Fiscal Dividend
One of the arguments made in the public sector health care sustainability debate is that while the share of national income devoted to public health insurance has grown at a relatively modest rate, the provinces have weakened their resource base with fiscal measures that have reduced their rates of personal and corporate taxation. It has […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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