Author Archives: wciecon
Thank you, Worthwhile Canadian Initiative commentators
Thank you to the commentator who (several months ago) wrote about the anchoring effect of minimum payments on credit card statements – that's the subject of the latest Economy Lab column.
More on the Canadian Dollar, Innovation, Industry and the Trefler Piece
A follow-up to Prof Gordon's blog entry on Dan Trefler's op-ed. There are (at least) three traps you can fall into when analyzing the effects of changes to the Canadian-U.S. exchange rate on Canadian business. In my view the Trefler op-ed falls into at least two of the three traps. After the break I will discuss […]
How does an appreciating Canadian dollar prevent improvements in innovation?
Dan Trefler's op-ed in Saturday's Globe and Mail had this passage: Do we want to be an innovation-based economy? Or do we want to be a resource-based economy? Unfortunately, we can’t be both. The loonie won’t let us. Why can't we be both?
The ethics of co-authored doctoral dissertations
Every thesis is, to some extent, a collaboration between the supervisor and the student. A student will have a research topic or an idea. The supervisor can say, "this is an excellent data set," "have you read this paper?" or "try taking this approach." A meeting between supervisor and student can turn into an hour […]
Why a Dying Manufacturing Industry Leaves Canada More Vulnerable to Dutch Disease
I am really enjoying the Economy Lab feature at the Globe and Mail. Two stories in particular caught my eye: Why Canada's manufacturing sector is dwindling and Get ready for a $1.15 loonie. Keeping in mind Dan Gardner's warnings on expert predictions, both pieces hit the mark. In particular, Prof. Gordon is correct that the […]
Son Preference: Statistical, Economic and Policy Significance
My Economy Lab column this week is about Missing women in China – and Canada too? Recent research by Douglas Almond, Lena Edlund, and WCI regular Kevin Milligan has found evidence of "son preference" – families planning their children to make sure that they have at least one son – within some ethnic groups in […]
Economy Lab: Why Canada’s manufacturing sector is dwindling
That's the title of my latest post on the Globe and Mail's Economy Lab site.
Currency wars and forced dissaving
The Fed is the loan placement officer for the world's central banks. The US government is the Fed's borrower of last resort. The forced loans can be called in at any time the lender wishes. People are different; that's why they trade. Sometimes that trade will take place between people who live in the same […]
Throwing Some Data on the Discussion – Federal Government Revenue
Since a discussion has developed in An updated history of the federal budget balance about where the Federal government gets their tax revenue from. Without comment, here is a chart. The data is federal government only, from CANSIM 385-0001.
An updated history of the federal budget balance
I did a round of interviews for CBC radio on Tuesday after the federal government's fiscal update was released, and it was often remarked that the 2009-10 deficit of $55.6b was the largest ever. I suppose I should have said that it sounds even larger if you say it was 5.56 trillion cents. These numbers […]
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