Author Archives: wciecon
Are Canada’s Housing Markets Overvalued?
Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney is going to be in Vancouver on Wednesday June 15th to deliver a speech on the country’s housing market. There is a lot of interest as to whether or not the housing market is overvalued so I thought I would take a look at housing prices and markets using […]
Are Quebec-born NHL coaches more likely to win the cup?
Historically French Canadians have been underrepresented on English Canadian NHL teams, relative to their representation on U.S.-based teams. The underrepresentation of people from Quebec is particularly dramatic behind the bench, in the coaching staff.
Adverse selection and single-blind peer review
The American Economics Association has announced that, as of July 1, 2011, its journals will be moving from double-blind to single-blind peer review. The identity of a paper's author will now be revealed to any potential referees. The Association gives three reasons for its decision: "Easy access to search engines increasingly limits the effectiveness of […]
Y tu actual rate of interest tambien, tambien
Damn. This is getting too easy. It's like shooting sitting pheasants! Hoisted from comments: reason says , in response to my last post, "The problem is with 'M'. It isn't well defined and it isn't under the direct control of the central bank." [Update: My response, in a nutshell: "The problem is with 'r'. It […]
A 90% Subsidy to Political Riding Associations?
While the per-vote subsidy is being phased out, it is only one of four subsidies given to political parties, with the other 3 being as follows: A tax rebate to persons making a political donation, including a 75% rebate to those donating $400 or less (Sec. 127(3) of the Income Tax Act) A 50% spending […]
The sources of the Canadian recession and recovery
This is one of those posts where I present data in graph form so that people – in particular, I – can get a feel for what's been happening. Today's entry is on how the various components of aggregate demand contributed to the recession and recovery. We sometimes get too focused on the particularities of […]
Y tu natural rate of interest tambien
In the olden days there was a debate between the Old Monetarists and the Old Keynesians. The Old Keynesians said that the Old Monetarists' MV=PY was useless, because (desired) velocity was not constant. Milton Friedman responded with what philosophers call the "Y tu mama tambien" argument. The Old Keynesian multiplier wasn't constant either.
Provincial Revenues: Another View
Well, in response to a comment in my last post asking how much variation in per capita revenues there is across the provinces, I've provided a graph of real per capita revenues (1997 dollars) for each province for the period 1975 to 2008 with the data that was used to compile the average and median […]
Seriously Strange Marginal Tax Rates – Ontario Edition
One of my less fun jobs at Nexreg is taking care of payroll. This involves using the Canada Revenue Agency's very helpful Payroll Deductions Online Calculator. My only complaint with the calculator is that it is cumbersome if you would like to play around with the numbers. Suppose I give an employee a $400/mth raise; […]
What do you think of the American Economic Association’s decision to end double-blind peer review?
The American Economic Association's decision to switch from double-blind to single-blind reviewing has attracted much attention, for example: http://crookedtimber.org/2011/06/05/should-the-american-economic-review-drop-double-anonymous-review/ http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/leading-economics-journals-drop-double-blind-peer-review/33462
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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