Category Family
When men and women are miles apart….
The Globe and Mail website doesn't cope with data and graphics easily, so I'm reproducing my most recent Economy Lab post, along with data tables that couldn't be included in the G&M piece, here:
The Gambling Economy: A Zero Sum Game?
Two stories in the Toronto Star this week have left me wondering if there is a new grand strategy at work for transforming Ontario’s economy in the wake of its manufacturing decline.
Wealth and Its Distribution: Tomorrow is Yesterday
Wealth and income inequality is a big issue and I thought some historical perspective on wealth inequality might be interesting given that my research to date has led me to conclude that little has changed for the bottom of the wealth distribution at least in terms of relative wealth shares. While there has been the […]
For better or for worse – or for insurance coverage?
One of the puzzling things about the United States is its extraordinarily high marriage rate. Among OECD countries, only Turkey and Cyprus have a higher rate of marriage (Source, OECD).
Does female employment raise or lower savings rates?
When female incomes rise, household expenditure patterns change. One oft-quoted survey paper suggests: men spend more of the income they control for their own consumption than do women. Alcohol, cigarettes, status consumer goods, even "female companionship" are noted in these studies. Another well known paper found that a UK policy change that transferred resources from […]
When is a ban a subsidy?
In the United States, surrogate mothers receive fees of about $20,000 to $25,000 for their services. In Canada, the U.K., Australia and a number of other countries, commercial surrogacy is outlawed, but surrogates are compensated for expenses, for example, clothing, food, prenatal vitamins, childcare, travel costs, lost wages, medications, medical bills, etc. In the U.K., reported expenses range […]
Surrogate motherhood: the case for commodification
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have one. So do Elton John and David Furnish, and that woman in the New York Times. They all have children borne by surrogate mothers. In Canada, as in the UK, Australia, France and several other countries, it is illegal to pay surrogate mothers for anything more than their expenses — […]
Conspicuous Production
Holiday parties are a time for conspicuous production: "Would you like some bread with sun-dried tomatoes – I just baked it this afternoon? The tomatoes? Oh, they're nothing – I had stacks of them in my garden this year, so I dried them in the solar-powered food drier that I built last summer." It wasn't […]
Son Preference: Statistical, Economic and Policy Significance
My Economy Lab column this week is about Missing women in China – and Canada too? Recent research by Douglas Almond, Lena Edlund, and WCI regular Kevin Milligan has found evidence of "son preference" – families planning their children to make sure that they have at least one son – within some ethnic groups in […]
Britain’s proposed child benefit taxback is inefficient
Today the BBC reports that child benefit is to be axed for higher-rate taxpayers. Some background: ideally, a person's tax liabilities reflect his or her ability to pay taxes. Most tax systems recognize that having children reduces ability to pay, so provide parents with some kind of tax relief. In the late 1970s, the British […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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