Category Frances Woolley
Financial literacy in the popcorn aisle
A short financial literacy quiz: Take a look at the picture on the right. How much does one box of popcorn cost? The correct answer, for this particular box, is $1.50. However it is not obvious that "two for $3" implies "one for $1.50". In other contexts, customers must make a minimum purchase to obtain […]
How should economists respond to the National Household Survey release?
On May 8th, the results of the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) will be released. The voluntary nature of the NHS will compromise the quality of the data collected. For example, the National Household Survey asks people about their religious beliefs. Yet religion has a strong influence on volunteering and civic engagement. The National Survey of […]
How quickly does hotness fade?
Ratemyprofessors.com allows students to grade a professor's clarity, helpfulness, ease and – just for fun – rate their appearance as "hot" or "not". A professor with more hot than not votes is awarded a chili pepper on the ratemyprofessors.com web site. Hotness declines with age, but how quickly? To find out, I combined ratemyprofessors hotness scores with […]
The (slowly) changing face of Ontario economics departments
When I was an undergraduate, many of my professors were Canadian born and American trained. The demographic profile of Canada, and of Canadian economics classrooms, has changed since then, as our country has recruited high skilled immigrants from around the world. But has there been a corresponding change in the demographic composition of the professoriate? As […]
Notation: a beginner’s guide
My colleague Lynda Khalaf's favourite saying is: Notation, notation, notation. Bad notation makes a paper difficult to follow. Papers that are hard to read and understand get rejected, or receive lower grades.
A day in the life of a behavioural economist
A key insight of behavioural economics is that people don't always do what is in their own long term interests. Our inner planner sets goals – complete that paper, write that referee's report, floss. Our inner doer – who has all the perseverance of Homer Simpson – fails to follow through, and sabotages the planner's best intentions. […]
What’s a man worth on the dating market?
Last fall I stopped talking about the economics of gender, and began talking about the economics of sex. It was wonderful. So much can be discussed under the rubric of economics of sex. Take, for example, the pick-up artist phenomenon, described in books like The Game. It's like Cesar Millan's Dog Whisperer books, urging men to be alphas, take […]
Canadian universities: reading the writing on the wall
The Royal Military College of Canada (RMCC) is the only university under direct federal control, thus recent developments there indicate the Harper government's vision for post-secondary education. This CAUT-commissioned report, whose authors include eminent economist Robin Boadway (an RMCC grad and ardent supporter of the college), describes a number of developments that merit close attention.
We’re free up here too, eh?
Paul Krugman has recently taken aim at the rhetoric of the US right: From the enthusiastic reception American conservatives gave Friedrich Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom,” to Reagan, to the governors now standing in the way of Medicaid expansion, the U.S. right has sought to portray its position not as a matter of comforting the comfortable […]
Things students do that aren’t annoying
Female Science Professor's blog recently featured a discussion of annoying things students do, like asking "Did I miss anything important" or "Is that going to be on the test" (the two questions FSP's readers voted the most annoying.) The purpose of the FSP posts is, in part, to generate good practical advice for students, and […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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