Category Frances Woolley
Tax Policy for Canadians with Disabilities: A Reading List
The amount of research on tax policy for Canadians with disabilities is fairly limited. Moreover, a number of key publications (such as the 2004 Brown and Torjman report) are hard to find. Thus, for my own convenience, and that of other researchers, I have created a reading list. Publications on this list are divided into […]
Marrying satisfaction with happiness
Shawn Grover and John Helliwell have just written a paper that claims to say something about marriage and happiness. Just about all the news coverage of this research has featured headlines like "Married People Are Happier People" or "Definitive Proof That Marriage, Especially To Your Best Friend, Makes You Happier." The paper is just one of the latest contributions […]
The economics of stuff
Some simple observations: 1. Economies grow when people buy stuff. 2. Over time, people accumulate more and more stuff. 3. People can only handle so much stuff. Sock drawers get full of socks. Cupboards get full of cups. Bookshelves get full of books. 4. It's hard to get rid of stuff. Economic models typically […]
Why does Toronto have better outdoor ice than Ottawa?
Toronto is, on average, warmer than Ottawa. So why does it have better outdoor ice? Some might argue that it doesn't. Every winter, Ottawa's Rideau Canal freezes to form the world's largest skating rink. Just about every city park sports an outdoor ice surface. But almost all of the city's ice is natural. On warm days, […]
Beware middle-aged men waving feminist flags
On December 12, 2006, Ontario ended "mandatory retirement." As of that date, employers could no longer base termination decisions on an employee's age. Ontario was following the lead of Quebec and Manitoba, which stopped having a standard retirement age in the early 1980s. Within a couple of years, mandatory retirement had effectively ended right across […]
Economists aren’t in the prediction business – and that’s a good thing
Last year one of my students* was trying to explain why immigrants struggle in the job market. His regressions weren't working, so he switched things round a bit. Using 2006 Census data, he found that people in Newfoundland are 30 percentage points less likely to be immigrants than people in Ontario. People with PhDs are […]
Is economics really a dismal science for women?
Donna Ginther and Shulamit Kahn have just published a paper that tracks thousands of American academics from the time they first get their PhDs through to their tenure and promotion decisions. They conclude: Economics is the one field where gender differences in tenure receipt seem to remain even after background and productivity controls are factored in and […]
How to deliver tax relief for Canadian families
In the 1960s, my mother's monthly family allowance cheque paid for a week's groceries. In 2011, the median Canadian two-parent family had an income of just over $90,000. At that level of net income, a family with two children receives Canada Child Tax Benefit worth $87 per month. That doesn't come close to paying for […]
Tax cuts should deliver equity, or efficiency, or both. Income splitting does neither.
The ideal tax system reflects a compromise between two conflicting goals: equity and efficiency. Equity requires that those who are able to pay more taxes do so. It means taxing the rich and giving to the poor, in thereby reducing inequality and ameliorating poverty. Hence equity demands relatively high marginal tax rates. Efficiency, on the […]
Who needs the responsibility?
Twenty years ago, men and women had similar attitudes towards children – young women, on average, wanted slightly more children than young men, but the differences were nothing to speak of. Now, on the other hand….
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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