Author Archives: wciecon
What part of “counter-example” don’t you get?
Suppose you claim that it is impossible for a debt to create a burden on future generations unless: it causes a reduction in investment that reduces future output; the higher future taxes cause disincentive effects that reduce future output; it is owed to foreigners so we have to pay part of our future output to […]
The burden of the (bad monetary policy) on future generations
You can try to kill zombie ideas. Or you can try to reframe them. I'm fed up with killing the "The national debt is not a burden on future generations because they will inherit (sic) the bonds as well as the debt so they will owe it to themselves" zombie. I already killed it a […]
What Does Health Spending Buy You?
Last WCI post, I used the OECD 2012 Health Data spending statistics to examine the growth of total health care spending. The question I want to look at this time is what does increased spending yield a health care system in terms of the health care resources available? While we are concerned with the cost […]
The arithmetic of tenure standards
What does it take to get tenure? Some institutions have no written tenure expectations, taking the philosophy: "we can't say what we expect for tenure but we'll know an acceptable candidate when we see one". Of late this approach has been falling into disfavour, and more universities are adopting explicit tenure standards, such as "teaching […]
When you need to know about the “don’t knows”
Canada's 2005 National Graduates Survey asked respondents the following question: "Compared to the rest of your graduating class in your field(s) of study, did you rank academically in the top 10? Below the top 10% but in the top 25%…" The responses are shown below:
Health Spending Update: Into the 21st Century
The OECD released its Health Data 2012 statistics several months ago and they are certainly worth a glance given that rising health spending is still a big international policy issue, and the capacity to pay has taken a recessionary hit during the first decade of the 21st century.
Incorporating behavioural economics into intermediate micro
Behavioural economics is fun. It starts off with anecdotes, experiments, and simple generalizations about people's behaviour. People are averse to losses, they go with the default option, and are overconfident. Behavioural economists give fun quizzes. Intermediate microeconomics, on the other hand, is hard. It begins with abstract concepts such as indifference curves and production functions. […]
Is “Y=C+I” a PPF?
I'm thinking about the best way to teach the investment demand curve in the "classical" (flexible price and wage) macroeconomic model. I don't like the way it's normally done. This post is an experiment, where I'm trying to come up with a better way. I'm not sure if I have succeeded yet, so if you […]
How much revenue can the Quebec government generate by increasing tax rates on high earners?
The newly-elected Parti québécois government wants to (among other things) eliminate the 'health tax' introduced in the 2010 budget and make up the shortfall by introducing two new tax brackets at the top end of the income distribution: 28% for taxable incomes above $130,000 31% for taxable incomes above $250,000 The current top Quebec rate […]
Simple thoughts on NGDP = RGDP x P
There have been several recent posts in the blogospere arguing about the interpretation of graphs (for several countries, but you can see Canada's here) which show a big fall in NGDP (relative to trend) at the beginning of the 2008 recession. (The latest from Ryan Avent here; Tyler Cowen's collection of links here.) Here are […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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