Category Frances Woolley
Selling carbon taxes in the exurbs
At a family party in the Toronto exurbs, right on the outer edge of the 905 zone, one of my favourite cousins cornered me. "You're an economist," he said, "tell me why you think carbon taxes are a good idea." My first thought was to sidestep the issue. "They're only a good idea," I said, […]
Economics is better (in some ways) than it used to be
The discipline of economics is in better shape today than it was in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Here are five reasons why: 1. Now, economists test their theories. In the 1960s, the majority of published economics papers were entirely theoretical. Even in the 1980s, the typical top-10 journal published mostly theoretical work (reference here). Today, top journals like […]
Taxation of the family: everything old is new again
Matt Krzepkowski and Jack Mintz have recently produced a working paper titled "No More Second-Class Taxpayers: How Income Splitting Can Bring Fairness to Canada's Single-Income Families." The paper argues that higher income single-earner married couples are "disadvantaged by the current system." It proposes to put an end to that by allowing income splitting, so a […]
This is what a barrier to trade looks like
The line-ups for the Kazungula ferry start two or three kilometres from the water on either side of the Zambezi river. Each line up might be 150 trucks long. But the Kazungula crossing is served by just two pontoon ferries. Each ferry takes one truck, and makes the return journey in half an hour or so, transporting perhaps […]
The lunch problem
When I first joined Carleton, just three out of thirty professors in the economics department were female. Then one retired, one moved to Montreal, and I was the only female professor around on a regular basis. For the most part, I didn't mind. If I was the kind of person who objected to being in […]
Men, women, and law school tuition
Law school is a human capital investment, worth making (roughly speaking) if the benefits are higher than the costs. Male lawyers earn, on average, more than female lawyers (e.g. here). But that does not mean they get a higher return on their legal education. The pay-off to going to law school is the increase in […]
Why don’t schools teach typing?
My niece wants to take a typing class. She watches her mother's hands whiz across the keyboard, rattling off 80 or 90 words per minute. She wants to be able to write quickly and effortlessly too. But her school doesn't teach typing. The question is: why not? Learning how to touch-type is a classic example […]
If Canada used American racial categories…
The US Census Bureau counts people by race: white, black, Asian, and so on. Statistics Canada counts people by "visible minority status" – we don't like to mention words like "race" or "white" up here. The other day I found myself wondering – if Canada used American racial categories, how would the demographics of the […]
Friends for Myles: Social networks and tax compliance
One reason why people pay their taxes is that they’re afraid of being caught, and fined, if they cheat. In the simplest possible model of tax evasion, people only comply with the tax code if the benefits of evasion – the savings in taxes paid - are less than the costs – the probability of […]
Bike share programs: good feelings, bad economics?
My local mall does not provide short-term bicycle rentals. It also does not sell roast-lamb-and-mint flavour potato chips, or jeans in a size 32 inch waist/36 inch leg. I would like to be able to purchase all three of these goods and services. For the last two items on the list, the intuition of the […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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