Category Frances Woolley
Why do beginner econometricians get worked up about the wrong things?
People make elementary errors when they run a regression for the first time. They inadvertently drop large numbers of observations by including a variable, such as spouse's hours of work, which is missing for over half their sample. They include every single observation in their data set, even when it makes no sense to do […]
Discriminating custom essay services
The most fascinating part of custom essay writing websites are the price sheets. The market is international, and – judging from the number of such sites – highly competitive. For an undergraduate essay with a 5 to 6 day deadline, typical prices are in the range of $16 per page, $16.76 per page, $18.99 per page (for premium […]
Within versus Between Sample Variation, or Why an Equal Marriage Means More Sex
It's clickbait, New York Times style: "Does a More Equal Marriage Mean Less Sex?" Spurred by findings of a paper by Sabrino Kornrich, Julie Brines and Katarina Leupp published in the American Sociological Review, the article argues that, "too much similarity in egalitarian marriages leads to boredom and decreased sexual frequency". In general, "the less gender differentiation, the […]
Remembering Mike Denny
I can never look at a conference bag without thinking of Mike Denny. For ten years, Mike was Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Economics Association. Of all the decisions he made during that time, none were so important as those that led to the elimination of conference bags. When Mike took over the running of the […]
So we work harder in Canada, eh?
In a recent blog post, Noah Smith points to some graphs posted by my old friend David Andolfatto. David's graphs show a widening gap between Canadian and US labour force participation rates, with the Canadian rate now outstripping the US rate by some margin. David – having learnt the hard way what happens to people who give […]
Russet apples and the Sam-I-Am theory of affirmative action
For years, I've been avoiding buying russet apples. They have such unattractive tawny brown skins. Not like the smooth, pink-cheeked Royal Galas and MacIntoshes. Until this fall. "What kind of apples would you like?", I asked my out-of-town visitors. "Well, russets are the best, of course, but I doubt you'll be able to get them. […]
Marriage, Canadian style
Canadians are less inclined towards marriage than Americans. How much less?
Why do people put stuff that isn’t recyclable into the recycling bin?
In Ottawa, plastic and glass recyclables go into a "blue bin", and are picked up once every two weeks as part of the regular household garbage collection. Styrofoam is not recyclable. It has never been recyclable. The instructions on the City of Ottawa website are clear: place these items in your regular garbage. It's not like […]
Some introductory behavioural economics notes
Last night I gave a brief talk on behavioural economics to the Carleton economics student societies. The slides are here: Download Behavioural_econ_talk.
The Dead Grandmother Syndrome Reconsidered
Students don't question professors who miss office hours because of sick children or aging parents. So why are professors so untrusting of students who claim to have a sick or dying grandparent? Every stage in life has its joys and sorrows. A typical university student is around 20 years old. His or her grandparents will […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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