Category Frances Woolley
The ethics of co-authored doctoral dissertations
Every thesis is, to some extent, a collaboration between the supervisor and the student. A student will have a research topic or an idea. The supervisor can say, "this is an excellent data set," "have you read this paper?" or "try taking this approach." A meeting between supervisor and student can turn into an hour […]
Son Preference: Statistical, Economic and Policy Significance
My Economy Lab column this week is about Missing women in China – and Canada too? Recent research by Douglas Almond, Lena Edlund, and WCI regular Kevin Milligan has found evidence of "son preference" – families planning their children to make sure that they have at least one son – within some ethnic groups in […]
Saving by buying lottery tickets
Another sad news day. An older woman, living on a fixed income. Faced with an emergency, she had paid for purchases with a department store credit card. The card's interest rate, including service charges, was 29 percent. She was barely able to pay the interest on the card. To reduce the amount owing was impossible. […]
Referees: the ultimate scarce resource
Every paper published in an academic journal goes through "peer review". It is sent out to two or three external reviewers, who evaluate the manuscript for originality, sound research methods, and so on. Unfortunately the quantity of manuscripts submitted to journals outstrips the number of people willing to review them, and the system is in […]
Firefighting is not a public good
In economics, public goods are ones that are (a) non-excludable and (b) non-rival. Non-excludable means that it is impossible to stop someone from enjoying the public good. For example, radio broadcasts can be picked up by anyone with a receiver. Non-rival means that one person's consumption of the good does not limit the amount available […]
Britain’s proposed child benefit taxback is inefficient
Today the BBC reports that child benefit is to be axed for higher-rate taxpayers. Some background: ideally, a person's tax liabilities reflect his or her ability to pay taxes. Most tax systems recognize that having children reduces ability to pay, so provide parents with some kind of tax relief. In the late 1970s, the British […]
Economy Lab
The email came the day I wrote a post called "Another rant about the Globe and Mail's coverage of economics." It was an offer "that I hope you can't refuse" – to participate in the Globe and Mail's new feature Economy Lab. Another day I might have said no, but I could hardly rant about […]
Is it getting harder to publish?
Another week, another rejection letter. Am I writing bad papers, or is it getting harder to publish?
Should every child in Ontario have the right to attend a Catholic school?
Every child in Canada has the right to attend a free, government funded public school. But some schools are better than others. And the range of choices available to children varies widely – and arbitrarily – across the country.
When academic publishing goes wrong: the case of missing women and Hepatitis B
This is a story about how something that turns out to be wrong can be published in a top journal, and what happens next. The Freakonomics team tell good stories, so I'll let them begin. In 2005, they wrote an article in Slate magazine lavishly praising the work of a young economist called Emily Oster.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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