Author Archives: wciecon
Intelligent Government in Canada — Ian Stewart Festschrift
I have 300+ exam papers to grade, and simply don't have time to do a proper post on this. (I don't really have the breadth of knowledge required either). Anyone interested in public policy in Canada, from a mostly economic perspective, would have benefited greatly from attending the conference (organised by the Centre for the […]
Canada’s Kobyashi Maru Test
In the Star Trek universe, one of the curriculum requirements for Starfleet Officer cadets is the infamous Kobyashi Maru test – the test of ultimate character and command ability.
A rant about EI premiums
It's her first job. She paid $105 last year in Employment Insurance premiums. But she worked fewer than 910 hours. So she wouldn't be eligible to claim EI, even if she was laid off. It's not fair that she has to pay premiums, but receives no entitlement to benefits in return.
What’s the best way to scale grades?
It happens. An exam question is not clear, or more challenging than intended. The exam is marked by an over-zealous TA. Or perhaps the students haven't studied as hard as they should have. As a result, the students' grades are, in some sense, too low – they do not accurately convey the students' level of […]
Garth Turner bleg
There's a job needs doing, but I'm not the best person to do it. Because I was never that good at variances and covariances and CAPM and stuff. One of you finance guys would be much better.
Understanding Victim Fine Surcharges
In Canada, people who break the law pay a “victim fine surcharge.” For federal offences, the surcharge is 15 percent of any fine imposed. For criminals who are not fined, a set surcharge of $50 or $100 is imposed, depending upon the severity of the crime. The funds raised through these fines stay in the […]
Someone is Getting Health Spending Under Control
The sustainability of provincial government health spending is a big issue and drug spending in particular has garnered a fair amount of attention. Whereas in 1975, drug spending only made up about 2 percent of public sector health spending in Canada, today it makes up nearly 10 percent and indeed has been one of the […]
Reverse-engineering the MMT model
I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible, so it's accessible to second-year economics undergraduates. Many theoretical papers I read are full of impenetrable (to me) thickets of math. So I reverse-engineer the model. I try to figure out what the underlying model must be in order for the paper's conclusions to make sense. […]
Does vote swapping increase efficiency?
Liberal voters in rural Alberta, Conservative voters in central Ottawa, and Green Party supporters across the country have one thing in common: their votes are almost certain to have no impact on the outcome of the Canadian election. Vote swapping websites offer these voters some hope of political power. A voter can register at votepair.ca or other […]
What can we learn from a random sample of land lines?
Every day throughout the election campaign, new poll numbers are released. Nanos Research, one of the leading polling companies, describes its methodology: A national random telephone survey is conducted nightly by Nanos Research throughout the campaign. Each evening a new group of 400 eligible voters are interviewed. The daily tracking figures are based on a three-day […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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