Monthly Archives: February 2013
University retention and males
Carleton University admits more male students than females. But it graduates more female students than males. Why? What, if anything, can and should we do about it? (I don't know.) The public access data is here. (Datacubes is a lovely tool, but it takes a little time learning how to use it.) You can see […]
Is Economic Growth Really Ending?
Robert Gordon has argued in his recent NBER paper “Is U.S. Economic Growth Over? Faltering Innovation Confronts the Six Headwinds” that growth rates have slowed and we are reverting to very low historical growth rates and indeed a period of economic stagnation. However, what I find intriguing is that an examination of some long-term data […]
Simple models and the macroeconomics of price controls
I hear that Argentina has imposed [update: economy-wide] price controls. I know next to nothing about Argentina, but I have spent some time thinking about the macroeconomics of price controls. I can easily build a simple macroeconomic model showing that price controls are a good thing that can make everybody better off. I cannot build […]
Can government intervention ever be sufficiently sensitive?
In South Africa the signs of AIDS are subtle, but ever present. Dispensers with free condoms in every university washroom. A red AIDS ribbon painted on the wall of the Knysna hospital. Another on the entrance to the Muizenberg cemetery, where wooden crosses and flowers in plastic bottles mark the resting places of those who […]
(Why) Is inflation finally falling?
This post is premature. It's too early to say for sure. And I don't have any real answers to explain this (possibly non-) event. I'm trying to fit together a number of things that have been puzzling me.
Baboons’ deathly rational calculus
Baboon checking out the buffet at Storms River Mouth restaurant Baboons are rational. They minimize the effort required to attain a given number of calories or, alternatively, maximize the amount of calories obtained from a given amount of effort. Given a choice between spending hours searching for fruit and seeds, or scarfing some left […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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