Category Canadian economy
Ontario Employment: Yours to Discover
Well, the latest Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey numbers paint a rather bleak picture for Ontario with employment dropping by 34,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rising from 7.3 to 7.5 percent. However, Ontario’s employment picture is much more complicated than that and regional numbers suggest that some parts of Ontario – well the GTA […]
A simple test of simple rules against actual policy in the actual economy
A "simple rule" is a formula that tells a central bank how to set the nominal interest rate as a fixed function of a small number of variables. The Taylor Rule, which sets the nominal rate as a function of the gap between actual and target inflation, and the gap between actual and potential output, […]
Employment and Investment: the great Canadian disconnect
[This is a guest post by Hashmat Khan of Carleton University and Nyamekye Asare of the University of Ottawa.] Can policies stimulating private investment deliver higher employment? Maybe, but investment and employment have become disconnected recently in Canada. John Taylor has noted a strong negative correlation between investment and the unemployment rate, and argued that […]
Canada: One Hundred and Forty-Seven Years of Economic Growth
Well Canada Day is once again upon us – we now have 147 years of Confederation to celebrate– and what better way to celebrate than with a brief retrospective of economic performance as measured by per capita GDP. For your viewing pleasure, I present real per capita GDP in $2002 for each of the main […]
House prices and inflation targeting
"Should house prices be included in the CPI?" is not a good question to ask. The best answer to that question is another question: "Why do you want to know?" Or, "It depends; what are you planning to use the CPI for?" Instead, it would be better to ask the question in a different way […]
Ontario’s Economic Future?
Well, the election is over and I must admit I was not that surprised the Liberals formed the government but I am surprised at the fact it is a majority government. There are now numerous economic challenges facing the province and suspect after the fun of campaigning from the left, the Liberals may eventually be […]
Pre Debate Warmup: Ranking Employment Across Ontario Political Regimes
Well, tonight is the Ontario election debate and inevitably job creation will come up as a topic. On the one hand, Tim Hudak will have to deal with the fallout over his Million Jobs Plan. On the other hand, Kathleen Wynne and Andrea Horwath will need to demonstrate what their plans for employment growth in […]
One Million Jobs One More Time
The debate over the Ontario PC “Million Jobs” platform has certainly gone ballistic over the last few days and having posted on the subject in January when the plan was first announced I certainly think its worth another post. When the “Million Jobs” plan was first mentioned in January, my response was to look at […]
Canadian Manufacturing Employment: Growth and Decline (But more decline than growth)
Ontario’s budget will be presented today in the wake of new GDP numbers from Statistics Canada showing that Ontario’s real GDP growth was amongst the poorer performers in the country in 2013 (Quebec, NS, & NB were lower). Manufacturing was again singled out as one of the sectors in which Ontario is doing rather badly […]
Cross Border Shopping Isn’t What it Used to Be
Canadian retailers have recently been concerned that the Canada Border Services Agency has been too lenient with cross-border shoppers in the wake of the increase in duty free limits in 2012. While it is true that cross-border trips have grown substantially over the last decade, I’m not sure they should be that concerned.
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