Monthly Archives: August 2012
As the Federation Turns: Quetarian Public Finances
Quebec and Ontario, the twin pillars of the Canadian federation, have much in common given that they share the economic space of the Windsor-Quebec axis – an economic region nestled around the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence waterway. Once upon a time, they were even one province but that fiery marriage had its ups and downs and […]
Taxpayers need warm glows too
Charles Sonnibank, D.D. by deed dated October 1635, bequeathed a reserve rent, out of land at Broome in the Parish of Hopesay, of 13 pounds, 6 shillings, 8 pence to be paid quarterly at the Rectory to Ten Poor Widows of Ludlow, the Rector to retain 6 shillings 8 pence for his care in receiving […]
Births Revisited: Births, Population and Per Capita Income
Well, after my last post I finally got around to calculating another measure of the birth rate – births per capita. Total births are a useful aggregate but the measure does not adjust for population size. There are other fertility measures out there such as births per woman aged 15 to 44 years but per […]
Why does repo exist?
Today's dumb question from the back of the Finance class. (But I would guess some other students might not know the answer either, and some maybe hadn't even thought of the question). [Update: just to be explicit, I am not asking why lenders want security for loans. I am asking why I don't sell my […]
No, you may not speak to my class
Because I would be abusing my authority if I said "yes". So you shouldn't even ask. [Updated: see below] This post is about teaching economics, though it could be about teaching anything else. It's also about allocating scarce resources between competing ends, which is the subject matter of economics.
Whatever happened to Price Level Path Targeting?
Before the recession, Inflation Targeting was the Champ, and Price Level Path Targeting was the Challenger. A strong Challenger. The Champ was the champ, but the Challenger had a lot of support. A lot of people thought he should and eventually would replace the Champ. People argued about who was better overall, but all agreed […]
Can we understand agent-based models?
[Updated. See below.] [I wrote this because we were starting to discuss the question in comments, and I thought it was interesting, so tried to collect my thoughts. No great original insights here. Nor even any conclusions, right or wrong. Read at your own risk. This post is really just a place for people who […]
Wot about the capitalists?
I just read Matt Yglesias "Monetary policy complacency is the conventional wisdom" (HT RA of The Economist) piece in Slate. It's depressing reading. "On one team are the leaders of the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, and the Bank of England. Alongside them are the political leaders of the United […]
Recessions and Making Babies
It would appear that the severity of the global recession is affecting fertility rates in many countries. The fertility rate as measured by the number of live births per woman in Europe has dropped substantially in a number of countries according to The Economist. These results suggest that rather than lowering the opportunity cost of […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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