Monthly Archives: May 2013
How can we spot a boom?
Suppose I had perfect knowledge about the economy. So I knew exactly what the right monetary policy would be to keep the economy growing along some sustainable path. And I knew exactly what that sustainable path would look like. I would then be able to tell the difference between: 1. Monetary policy is too loose, […]
Bike share programs: good feelings, bad economics?
My local mall does not provide short-term bicycle rentals. It also does not sell roast-lamb-and-mint flavour potato chips, or jeans in a size 32 inch waist/36 inch leg. I would like to be able to purchase all three of these goods and services. For the last two items on the list, the intuition of the […]
Visible minorities: Distinctly Canadian
As far as I know, Canada is the only country that divides its population into "visible minorities" and "non-visible minorities." In this post, I describe how, and why, Canada counts people this way. A person's visible minority status is ascertained by asking: "Is this person….White, South Asian (e.g., East Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, etc.), Chinese, Black, […]
Monetary policy is not interest rate policy – Japanese version
Suppose I announced I would be buying an asset, both now and in future. And suppose people believed my announcement. It would be paradoxical if my announcement caused the price of that asset to fall. It would be even more paradoxical if I had said I was buying the asset because I was trying to […]
The Challenges of Mark Carney’s European “Mission Civilisatrice”
In his farewell address to Canada before assuming the reins of the Bank of England, Mark Carney argues that Canada works because of the strength of the Canadian federation when it comes to its institutional framework and its four critical advantages of responsible fiscal policy, sound monetary policy, a single and resilient financial system and […]
Do ratemyprofessor scores correlate with official teaching evaluations?
"He's a smart guy, almost as smart as he thinks he is…" Review on ratemyprofessors.com The ratemyprofessor.com website comes in for a lot of criticism. Some allege that the reviews are bogus. Others argue that it provides no useful information for students, just laurels for hot, easy teachers. Another common criticism is that too few students post […]
Revealed preferences for longevity
Smoking takes 10 years off your life - but is this a sufficient reason to give up smoking? Why is a long life a better life? The United Nations Human Development Index uses life expectancy as a measure of life quality because: a long life is valuable in itself and… various indirect benefits (such as adequate […]
Of dogs and data
Over the past year or so, cities across Canada have been creating open data portals (see, for example, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax). But Toronto's is special – it has data on cat and dog licences. The data reveal the most popular dog breeds in Toronto in 2011:
The Interest Rate Time Bomb
The recent policy debate over whether its time for interest rates to start to rise after being at the lowest levels since the Great Depression for nearly five years shows just how much of a policy box governments are in when it comes to fiscal and monetary policy. Never mind the debate over whether there […]
Marianne Ferber: A little giant
photo from "Engendering Economics" by Zohreh Emami and Paulette Olson Marianne Ferber was proud to have been a Canadian economist, if only for a little while. The "Canadian" part was due to astute planning by her father, Karl Abeles. Marianne was born in Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, in 1923. Canada was exceptionally hostile to Jewish immigration in […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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