Category Frances Woolley
The unbearable richness of biscuits
Last summer I picked up an old, well-thumbed, Magic Baking Powder Cookbook. Judging by the cover, and the inclusion of recipes that "won first prize at the 1931 Canadian National Exhibition", I would guess that the recipes in the book date from the 1930s or 40s.
Goodbye carbon taxes, hello atmospheric user fees
Economists (at least those who believe in global warming) frequently argue that the best way to discourage overuse of fossil fuels is with a carbon tax. A carbon tax reflects unpriced, external or social costs; the environmental damage created by fuel consumption. With a carbon tax in place, people will only consume fuel if the benefits […]
Should 888 Richmond Way pay higher property taxes than 13 Deadman Road?
In Canada, property taxes are typically based on "market value assessment". The assessment is arrived at by gathering information, for as many properties as possible, on: observable characteristics such as lot size, age and size of the home, number of bathrooms, proximity to parks and the city centre and selling prices estimating a relationship between […]
Why Medicare Vouchers Are Inefficient
The little-known microeconomics textbook Zowning and Bupan does an excellent job of presenting the case against medicare vouchers:
Inequality rules
Last March, Bell Canada Enterprise circulated its 2012 executive compensation policy: we use three key elements of compensation with an aggregate target value positioned at the 60th percentile of what is paid in the competitive market for similar positions. A few weeks later, Human Resources minister Diane Finley announced "a more efficient and responsive temporary foreign […]
Elinor Ostrom, you were turtley right
Mother turtle laying eggs on banks of Rideau River Elinor Ostrom, Nobel-prize winning political economist, died on June 12, 2012. That same day, a mother turtle pulled her way out of the Rideau River, and made her nest on the river bank. A turtle's idea of a good nesting place is somewhere with soft, loose […]
Boy versus Teacher: A Lesson in Mastery
"Read each sentence or poem. Mark an X on the word or words that need to be capitalized. Then write the sentence correctly on another sheet of paper." "Writing it again is a waste of time."
The rejection letter I’m too politically correct to send
Dear Professor Faraway, Thank you for your submission to Review of Economic Theory of Consumer Habits (RETCH). Like most papers we receive from developing country academics, your submission is not suitable for publication in our journal.
Flowcharts as models
Give an economist a problem such as "Why do people waste their time playing video games?" and she'll typically model it like this:
Taxpayers need warm glows too
Charles Sonnibank, D.D. by deed dated October 1635, bequeathed a reserve rent, out of land at Broome in the Parish of Hopesay, of 13 pounds, 6 shillings, 8 pence to be paid quarterly at the Rectory to Ten Poor Widows of Ludlow, the Rector to retain 6 shillings 8 pence for his care in receiving […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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