Author Archives: wciecon
Regional disparities in Canadian economic growth: Theory and evidence
In its recent release of income data from the 2015 census, Statistics Canada helpfully provided data tables for median incomes in 2005 and 2015 for various regions in Canada. The headline number was the 12.7% increase in median Canadian incomes, and there's been some commentary about how the gains during the last decade were not […]
The Devil You Know vs The Market For Lemons
I told my friend Mike I was thinking of trading my car in for one that used less gas. Nowadays I would talk about the Market for Lemons as a reason against doing what I was thinking of doing. But in 1974 I didn't know about Akerlof's famous paper, and neither did Mike, who was […]
Health Spending and System Characteristics in Canada and Spain
I gave a talk at Memorial University in Newfoundland & Labrador last week sponsored by the Department of Economics and the Collaborative Allied Research in Economics Initiative (CARE). My talk was based on joint research currently underway with David Cantarero Prieto at the University of Cantabria in Spain comparing the determinants of government health spending […]
Two Ways Central Banks can do Monetary Policy even if Bitcoin totally replaces Dollars as Medium of Exchange
Just a quickie, in response to Benjamin Vitaris' article about Warren E. Weber's Bank of Canada Working Paper (pdf) (HT Tony Yates on Twitter). [Update: and read Tony's post, on commercial banks and lender of last resort, as a complement to this post.] Suppose that Bitcoin totally replaces the Canadian Dollar (and every other currency) […]
Central Bank Communication and the Term Structure
It's a choice between being surprised by immediate small changes, and being surprised by warnings of much bigger future changes. A simple and maybe obvious point. I don't know if it's been made before; if not, it should have been. The Bank of Canada has eight Fixed Announcements Dates per year. At each FAD it […]
Migration, Wages, and Corner Solutions
I'm trying to get my head straight on something. Macro farmboy lost in Urban Economics again. Read at your own risk. If immigration always increases real wages (or well-being), do we end up in a "corner solution", where everyone bunches together in one location leaving other locations empty? If so, that's a reductio ad absurdam, […]
Looking for a University President
“Some people think that a college president’s life is full of joys and a host of friends. I know that he frequently walks in sorrow and alone because of the times he must do what seems impossible.” Paul V. Sangren (1948) “What a President Learns” Journal of Higher Education, 19, 6, 287-288. Well, my university […]
The exchange rate and net exports “contribution” to growth
This post is about national income accounting, and its dangers. Reading Simon Wren-Lewis' post about Brexit and real wages made me finally decide to try to get my head clear about something I've been meaning to get it clear about for some time. I think Simon might be wrong about something (I'm not sure though, […]
Thinking about Costs and Benefits of Immigration
I find this a useful way to organise my thoughts about the costs and benefits of immigration. It may work for you too. I start out with a neutral benchmark, where immigration has neither costs nor benefits for the original population. Then I think of different ways in which that neutral benchmark could be wrong. […]
Balancing Ontario’s Budget…In 1875
We often long for simpler times and search for them in our not so distant past. As an economist that does public finance and economic history, the public accounts of the past can offer me an interesting diversion. Governments, at any time in history always take in revenues and make payments and the budgets and […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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