Author Archives: wciecon
What is a University President Worth?
Along with the Canada geese returning home and the melting snow revealing buds of green growth, another sign of spring in Ontario is the unveiling of the sunshine list – those individuals in the Ontario public sector and broader public sector earning $100,000 or more. Included as always on the 2012 list are university salaries […]
Greece, barter, and the gap-cubed law of new exchange systems
In the past, I have argued for the theory that recessions are always and everywhere a monetary (medium of exchange) phenomenon. How to test that theory? Non-monetary exchange (barter) is usually very costly, so people use money instead. But in a recession, if my view of recessions is correct, the benefits of resorting to barter […]
Teaching Purchasing Power Parity
This is a simple post about how I have been teaching Purchasing Power Parity in ECON1000 for the last couple of years.
FIRE! FIRE in the labour market!
The story of the Canadian labour market in the second half of 2011 was a recovery knocked off course by events in international financial markets. The crises associated with the US debt ceiling and European sovereign debt drove down commodity prices and the Canadian dollar. So the fact that employment growth slowed in the wake […]
International finance with no international trade
Sometimes I like to make assumptions I know are totally false. Not (or not always) for simplicity, but just to see what happens. It helps me understand the world better. For example, sometimes I like to assume a barter economy; it helps me understand monetary exchange better to see what would happen if we didn't […]
A river keeper’s story
There is a canoe put-in on the Rideau River known as "Thomson's Landing." It is marked by a six foot high stake, against which Mr Harry Thomson (for whom the put-in is named) tracked the height of the Rideau River's spring flood for almost 50 years.
Who is More Fiscally Sustainable: Ottawa or Queen’s Park?
Both the Federal and Ontario budgets are nearly upon us and the key watchword for both is going to be the sustainability of the public finances.
Test driving Canada’s new open data portal
Canada, following the lead of the US (http://data.gov), the UK (http://data.gov.uk/), and Australia (http://www.ands.org.au/) has created a new open data portal, http://data.gc.ca. The data portal contains all of Statistics Canada's CANSIM data, as well as data from the Department of Finance, Health Canada, Environment Canada, Transport Canada, Citizen and Immigration Canada, and so on. To try […]
Teen Sex and Econometrics
The Canadian Community Health Survey asks respondents "In the past 12 months, have you had sexual intercourse?". The overwhelming majority of 18 to 19 years, when asked that question, answered….
Teaching SRAS shocks
I hate teaching Short Run Aggregate Supply shocks. 1. It's easy to teach them wrong. 2. I don't understand them very well. 3. I don't think anyone understands them very well.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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