Category Canadian economy
Minimum Wages as Macroeconomic Stimulus?
The minimum wage debate has heated up in Ontario given the Ontario Ministry of Labor’s Minimum Wage Advisory Panel is travelling the province looking for input on how to adjust the minimum wage in the province and sparking debate as to whether the minimum wage should be raised from the current general minimum of $10.25 […]
The Incredible Shrinking Federal Government
The Federal government will be releasing their fall economic update today and so this is as good a time as any to review Canadian federal government finances. Contrary to my earlier expectations, I guess the Federal government may indeed be about to balance its budget by 2015/16 judging by early press reports regarding today’s Federal […]
Why Ontario Will Not Be Balancing the Budget Anytime Soon
Ontario released its fall economic statement this week and the government insists that it will be balancing the budget by 2017-18. From an actual deficit of 9.2 billion dollars for 2012-13, it is anticipated that the deficit will be 11.7 billion dollars in 2013-14 and will go down to 3.5 billion dollars by 2016-17. Yet, […]
Migration and Population Size
There was a recent piece in the New York Times on Italy’s economic situation and how its high unemployment rate and stagnant economy appears to have led to a return of Italian emigration. This story struck a personal chord given my own parents came to Canada during the post World War Two wave of immigration. […]
The Health Care Cost Curve: Bending if Necessary but not Necessarily Bending?
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) has put out their 2013 National Health Expenditure Report and the big story seems to be that the numbers show that public sector health care costs in Canada are declining. Real per capita public sector health care spending (in 1997 dollars and I used the Health Care Implicit […]
The best cure for “easy money” is easier monetary policy
Reading Bank of Canada Monetary Policy Reports doesn't normally annoy me, but reading this latest one did. Specifically, this bit: "Although the Bank considers the risks around its projected inflation path to be balanced, the fact that inflation has been persistently below target means that downside risks to inflation assume increasing importance. However, the Bank […]
Random thoughts on house prices
First random thought: a person who was very ignorant about future house prices would nevertheless be almost certain that real (inflation-adjusted) house prices will be lower than today at some time in the future. If we want a null hypothesis about house prices, I think the best null hypothesis would be that the log of […]
Gross Saving: A Comparison
I’m teaching public finance this term and just finished a discussion of the economic effects of income taxation on saving using a simple two period model of inter-temporal consumption. I rounded out the discussion with a comparison of personal savings rates between Canada and the United States and how their savings rates have converged since […]
Opposition to two FTAs: Canada/US 1987 vs Canada/EU 2013
I don't understand this. In 1987 Canada negotiated a Free Trade Agreement with the US. In 2013 Canada negotiates a Free Trade Agreement with the EU. The US and the EU are both very big advanced economies. Wikipedia confirms my memory of 1987: "The debate in Canada over whether to implement the negotiated agreement was […]
What’s a Billion?
I have finally been able to catch my breath this week and ponder the situation in Ontario over the report on the final cost of cancelling two natural gas electricity plants in the Oakville-Mississauga area ostensibly in order to retain seats for the Ontario Liberal government given local opposition to the plants. The Ontario auditor […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
Recent Comments