Author Archives: wciecon
A preliminary estimate for Canadian 2010Q4 GDP growth
Statistics Canada released their estimates for November GDP gowth on Monday, and it was relatively good news: an increase of 4.4% at annual rates. But we shouldn't get to excited. According to the small backcasting (no, I did not make that word up) model I've been using for the past few years, the 2010Q4 number […]
A new Canadian economics blog: Northern Economist
The string of good Canadian econoblog news continues. Lakehead University's Livio Di Matteo has a blog: Northern Economist. I've only become recently aware of it, but a brief skim is enough to tell me (and you) that this is yet another high-quality addition to the still-too-small Canadian econoblogosphere. I'm off to subscribe to his feed […]
How economic policy analysis is done, and why it’s not the same as forecasting
Third-year students in Laval's Baccalauréat intégré en économie et politique are required to take a seminar course on policy evaluation, and this week, I'm going to be giving a lecture on the basics of how it's done. It occurs to me that this is a lecture that many, many people should sit in on, so […]
The GST and Lord Voldemort
I can't – and won't – count the times where I've pointed out that increasing the GST is probably the best way of raising revenues to deal with a federal structural deficit whose size is almost exactly equal to the revenues foregone by the 2 points the Conservatives cut from the GST. And I have […]
Some corporate tax talking points I wish people would stop talking about
The issue of corporate taxes is becoming an issue, and it may even be an issue that provokes an election. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the debate has deteriorated even faster than I had feared. Here are five Bad Talking Points that I wish people would stop talking about.
Does the construction industry suffer false consciousness?
According to research carried out by Professor Jack Mintz of University of Calgary, the construction industry stood to gain enormously from Ontario's adoption of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST): In 2009, the business tax structure was heavily biased against investments in construction (42.2%) and services… By 2018, however, Ontario’s business tax structure will be not only […]
Corporate Tax Rates, the Conservatives and the Liberals
It's been interesting watching the back and forth between the Conservatives and the Liberals regarding corporate tax rates. However, I've become frustrated with a question that isn't being asked of the Liberals.
The Pro-Usury Party meets the Neo-Wicksellians
Most macroeconomists believe that the real interest rate is what equilibrates AD and AS. If the real interest rate is too high, AD will be too low, and lower than AS, so there's excess supply of output. And the fall in AD will cause an equivalent fall in output. That's the orthodox Neo-Wicksellian position. I […]
A new Canadian economics blog!
Andrew Leach is an environmental economist at the University of Alberta, and he has started a blog: Rescuing the frog. I have just subscribed to his feed, and you should, too.
Understanding the Keynesian Cross
(Almost) every economist has learned the Keynesian Cross. (Almost) nobody (IMHO) understands it. (Or, less provocatively, we all understand it differently). Here is my interpretation of the Keynesian Cross model. This is how I understand it. (This is inspired by Steve Williamson's post. I partly agree and partly disagree with Steve, but have decided to […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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