Author Archives: wciecon
Just a little bit of Macro First
I don't have any easy answers to the "Micro first" vs "Macro first" debate when teaching Introduction to Economics. But this is what I do, and it seems to work a bit. And I have probably taught Intro about 30 times in my life. That experience should count for something. 1. We (Carleton University) are […]
Questions for Money/Macro Historians of Thought about “doing nothing”
First I need a long Preamble, to try to explain better what my questions are, and why they matter. I was reading Simon Wren-Lewis' good post on the centrality of monetary (and fiscal) policy (as opposed to price flexibility) on how long recessions last. (As I have said before, "Is the macroeconomy self-correcting?" is a […]
Is Two the new Zero? Why Divine Coincidence failed
Speculative, as Tyler Cowen would say. When people play the Dictator Game Ultimatum Game [thanks Alex] they don't play the way economists would predict. The Nash Equilibrium is for the first player to propose a 99:1 division of the pie take-it-or-leave-it offer, and the second player to accept. Because 1% is better than nothing, so […]
Is it time to kill the traditional student presentation?
The traditional student presentation format – ten minutes of powerpoint, two minutes of questions – rarely works well. After three or four presentations, a good chunk of the audience zones out. Getting a good discussion going is hard – and there isn't time for an extended conversation anyways. Then there are the logistical challenges – […]
Some very basic non-Walrasian economics
If we had one central market, with a Walrasian auctioneer, where all goods are traded simultaneously for each other, none of this would matter. But we don't; so it does. Partial equilibrium theorists don't need to know this stuff. People who believe prices are always at market-clearing levels don't need to know this stuff. Everyone […]
Innovation Central-Bank Style: Engaging with the Research Community
This post was written by Carolyn Wilkins, Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada. During the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes wrote “It’s astonishing what foolish things one can temporarily believe if one thinks too long alone, particularly in economics.” Today, this is truer than ever, and it’s a principle the Bank of Canada […]
My macro framework
FWIW. Since everyone else seems to be doing this. 1. There are n different types on labour. 2. Each individual has an endowment of one type of labour, and wants to trade some of it for some of the other types of labour. 3. But (double) coincidence of wants is rare, so they use money […]
Vortigern’s immigration policy
Economists aren't exactly noted for their expertise in Cultural Studies (I think that's what I'm doing here), but I'm going to give it a go. The fact that the Arthurian legend still resonates 1,500 years later tells us something about people, their hopes and fears. According to legend, Arthur was the British resistance leader who […]
Robots and the Core
I don't do micro. Can somebody please find me some simple accessible link that explains "the core" and its relation to competitive equilibrium? Thanks. This one (pdf) looks good but has got too much math for me to understand. [Update: here's Aumann (pdf). First couple of pages are readable. Thanks notsneaky.] Suppose you have an […]
A modest proposal for renewed imperialism
I hear that a lot of people want to migrate to…Finland. I'm pretty sure it's not because they like Finland's climate, or scenery. I don't think it's got anything to do with the physical geography of Finland. I think that they want to move to Finland because they like Finland's political, legal, and social institutions, […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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