Author Archives: wciecon
Why don’t we have disinflation (until now)?
Just a quickie, between meetings. Paul Krugman asks "Why don't we have deflation?" His answer is: downward nominal wage rigidity. And he shows that graph of frequency distribution of nominal wage changes with a big spike at zero. I don't think that's quite the right question. So I don't think that's quite the right answer. […]
Can evolution save the elephant?
For centuries, elephants with large tusks have been targetted by hunters and poachers. The "unnatural selection" in favour of smaller-tusked elephants has resulted in a dramatic decrease in average tusk sizes right across Africa. Smaller tusks increase an individual elephant's probability of survival, by making him or her a less attractive target for poachers. But […]
Government Spending and Crime
I’ve been doing some data exploration on public sector spending and societal outcomes and have some preliminary results that have caused me to puzzle about what they might mean. I’ve been looking at annual data for OECD countries (33 countries) over the period 2000 to 2010 and the relationship between public sector size and crime […]
Financial Literacy Quiz
Today I'm trying to do some work with the Canadian Financial Capability Survey. This survey contains a test of financial literacy/knowledge, which I have reproduced below the fold:
Men: Nature’s Second Sex
Pity the poor male springbok. As soon as he reaches sexual maturity, he is pushed out of the herd by the dominant male. Alone on the plains, he is easy picking for lions, leopards and cheetahs. The best survival strategy is to team up with other young males and form a bachelor herd. It's safer, […]
Labour supply, lions and elephants
For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they […]
What is an “excess demand for money”?
I know what it means to say there is an excess demand for apples. And I know where to look to see whether there's an excess demand for apples. I go to the apple market, where people buy and sell apples for money. If I see that it is hard for people who want to […]
Draft notes for teaching Intro Money
I always suffer self-doubt when I teach the Money part of Intro Economics. Perhaps I'm over-thinking it, and it would be better for my students if I told myself to shut up, and just give them some simple clear story. But how to get it simple and clear, yet not horribly wrong or incomplete? I'm […]
Do Japanese emission controls contribute to global warming?
Japan has one of, if not the, strictest emission control regimes in the world. Upon purchase, when a car is three years old, and every two years after that, each car must undergo a rigorous and sometimes costly Sha-ken inspection. These ensure that it meets tough emission standards and is in sound mechanical condition. Sha-ken makes […]
Universities, Public Funding & Entrepreneurship: The Consequences of Risk
Alex Usher of Higher Education Strategy Associates asked some interesting questions in his morning blog post. The world of university funding in Canada is changing – there is more money overall for universities but governments have been paying a declining share of university operating budgets with the remainder coming from tuition and assorted sources of […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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