Category Frances Woolley
Can an element of danger make life safer?
photo from ncc.gc.ca In Ottawa-Gatineau, the standard rules of the road apply to recreational pathways. People cycle, roller-blade or walk on the right. Slower traffic keeps to the far right-hand side of the path. In theory, it's safe. Everyone knows which side of the pathway they are supposed to be on. Having a […]
A truly unimpressive accomplishment
Note: I have re-written this post in response to comments from biostatistician Thomas Lumley below. It made headlines around the world: Facebook ‘likes’ can reveal users’ politics, sexual orientation, IQ. According to Michal Kosinski, the lead researcher, information on "gender, race, political views, religion, sexual orientation, personality, IQ and so on," can be extracted from the […]
Does public sector salary disclosure raise or lower salaries?
I don't know. Ontario's salary disclosure legislation, which requires that all salaries over $100,000 per year be made publicly available, was introduced by the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Mike Harris. That government had a somewhat unenthusiastic attitude towards MUSH (municipalities, universities, schools and hospitals) and the public service. The aim of the legislation was, […]
How can son preference persist?
In much of North Eastern India, there are 915 or fewer girls for every thousand boys – a sex ratio of more than 1.09 boys per girl. The persistence of such high sex ratios is puzzling, because it violates Fisher's Principle. In most species, the ratio of males to females is approximately one to one. […]
Why “culture” is a lousy explanation
In China, there are 6 boys born for every 5 girls; the result of an age old preference for sons combined with widespread use of sex selection technology. It's tempting to ascribe son preference to culture and leave it at that. However, for an economist, "culture" is a lousy explanation. It has no only trivial predictive […]
What does the federal budget mean for the post-secondary sector?
Reforming universities is difficult. Cures tried elsewhere, like the UK Research Assessment Exercise, have induced people to publish more. Yet, to the extent that research comes at the cost of time spent teaching or engaging with students, "incentivizing" research could actually decrease the social value of universities. University reform is doubly difficult in Canada, […]
Was Canada ever the best place in the world?
A revised and updated version of this post is on the Globe and Mail website here. Thanks to all of the WCI commentators who helped me get my head around the HDI calculations. For much of the 1990s, Canada topped the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI). Newspaper headlines and politicians declared we were the […]
Son Spots: The merits of dynasties
Politics seems to run in families. The question is: why? Why would electors choose the son, daughter or spouse of a successful politician over other candidates who are, on paper at least, equally or more qualified? An economist is in no position to answer this question, but is ably equipped to theorize about it.
Frivolous Fees and Serious Money
Over on Ramblings and Musings, University of Toronto professor Victor Ivrii is thinking about frivolous fees. His article is prompted by a National Post piece on "Sanctioned sex club events and Israeli Apartheid Week". The National Post article asks: Why is their money going to support controversial events, such as Israeli Apartheid Week or the “Epic […]
The intercept is negotiable, the slope is fixed
A new hire only gets one chance to negotiate: a brief window between the time that an offer is made and the time when that offer is accepted. Those initial terms and conditions determine the employee's salary for years to come – possibly the entire the duration of his or her time at the institution. […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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