Author Archives: wciecon
The Challenges of Mark Carney’s European “Mission Civilisatrice”
In his farewell address to Canada before assuming the reins of the Bank of England, Mark Carney argues that Canada works because of the strength of the Canadian federation when it comes to its institutional framework and its four critical advantages of responsible fiscal policy, sound monetary policy, a single and resilient financial system and […]
Do ratemyprofessor scores correlate with official teaching evaluations?
"He's a smart guy, almost as smart as he thinks he is…" Review on ratemyprofessors.com The ratemyprofessor.com website comes in for a lot of criticism. Some allege that the reviews are bogus. Others argue that it provides no useful information for students, just laurels for hot, easy teachers. Another common criticism is that too few students post […]
Revealed preferences for longevity
Smoking takes 10 years off your life - but is this a sufficient reason to give up smoking? Why is a long life a better life? The United Nations Human Development Index uses life expectancy as a measure of life quality because: a long life is valuable in itself and… various indirect benefits (such as adequate […]
Of dogs and data
Over the past year or so, cities across Canada have been creating open data portals (see, for example, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax). But Toronto's is special – it has data on cat and dog licences. The data reveal the most popular dog breeds in Toronto in 2011:
The Interest Rate Time Bomb
The recent policy debate over whether its time for interest rates to start to rise after being at the lowest levels since the Great Depression for nearly five years shows just how much of a policy box governments are in when it comes to fiscal and monetary policy. Never mind the debate over whether there […]
Marianne Ferber: A little giant
photo from "Engendering Economics" by Zohreh Emami and Paulette Olson Marianne Ferber was proud to have been a Canadian economist, if only for a little while. The "Canadian" part was due to astute planning by her father, Karl Abeles. Marianne was born in Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, in 1923. Canada was exceptionally hostile to Jewish immigration in […]
If you don’t like low interest rates, you want the Bank of Canada to loosen monetary policy now
Two weeks ago I wrote a post "Monetary stimulus vs financial stability is a false trade-off". My opening lines in that post were: "There's an idea floating around out there that I fear may be influential. And that idea is horribly wrong. Which makes it dangerous. And I want to try to kill it." Today, […]
Do New Keynesians need to assume (much) labour hoarding?
We know that measured productivity falls in a recession (relative to trend). Real Business Cycle theorists say that this is because a negative productivity shock is what caused the recession. Keynesians say that a negative aggregate demand shock is what caused the recession, and labour hoarding (firms don't like to lay off workers even if […]
Which is the most bike friendly city in Canada?
The 2006 Canadian census asked people about their usual mode of transport to work or school. Only a small fraction of those answering the question reported that they cycle to work or school, and city with the highest percentage of cycle-commuters is….
Why bikes are cooler than cars
The car is in decline. The Economist says so, and so does the New York Times. Cars are boring; bikes are cooler. Here are the top 10 reasons why. 10. Cars are for stuff People from the pre-computer era have books, DVDs, TVs, stereos, big photo albums, board games, and playing cards. They need cars […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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