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A new Canadian economics blog! A new Canadian economics blog!
I was getting all depressed reading this article: even after applying the rule-of-10, the Canadian economics blogosphere is woefully under-developed. But then I saw this in the comments here, which drew my attention to Shock Minus Control. It has three posts so far, and I count three graphs already.
Nick Rowe joins Worthwhile Canadian Initiative
Over the past few weeks, Nick Rowe of Carleton University has been sending me some very fine pieces of analysis that I've posted here. This has increased the quality of this blog immensely, so I'm very pleased to announce that he has agreed to join me and post as an author in his own right. […]
Election markets are beyond silly
I'm going to indulge in a heaping helping of I Told You So: Trader drove up price of McCain 'stock' in online market: An internal investigation by the popular online market Intrade has revealed that an investor’s purchases prompted “unusual” price swings that boosted the prediction that Sen. John McCain will become president. Over the […]
Some thoughts on the bubble/s and financial crisis/es
Nick Rowe provides us with some talking points on how we all got into this mess: I am taking part in a roundtable on the financial crisis next week at Carleton (Wednesday 8 October 5.30-7.00 in 360 Tory, just in case anyone is interested in attending). The audience and other panel members will be mostly […]
On the benefits of school choice: A natural experiment in Ontario
The government of Ontario provides public funding for two parallel school systems: separate (Catholic) and public (non-Catholic) – I'm going to resist the temptation to provide a paragraph here outlining the constitutional and political history that explains why this is the case. For what follows, all we need to know is that in Ontario, Catholics […]
Markets bravely go where politicians fear to tread
Hallmark introduces gay marriage cards: Now that more than 1,000 newspapers across the nation accept wedding announcements from same-sex couples, it only seems right that Hallmark should make a card specifically celebrating that happy occasion. And they have. Finally. Hallmark added the cards after California joined Massachusetts as the only U.S. states with legal gay […]
High taxes doesn’t mean big government. And low taxes doesn’t mean small government.
I’ve never, ever understood the assertion that high taxes = big government: It is possible to imagine an economy with high taxes that are used to redistribute income with only a minimal distortion of markets. It is possible to imagine an economy with low taxes that are used to pay the salaries of a small […]
The economics of Scrooge
Stackelberg Follower has a delightful post on Market failure in Christmas, written in the well-established tradition of applying formal economic modeling techniques to a thorny social problem. Here is the setup: A model: Denote the degree to which advertisers push christmas by ‘Push’. This includes seasonal music playing in malls, Santa set up in said […]
I wish there were more Canadian economics blogs
Dani Rodrik’s pessimistic post on the future of economics blogosphere – and his subsequent correction – left me a bit bemused. By my current reckoning – and I will be thrilled if someone can correct me – the Canadian economics blogosphere consists of two members: me and John Palmer at Eclecticon. A Canadian Econoview seems […]
Imperial anthropology
Stackelberg Follower comes across an introductory anthropology textbook whose authors are interested in writing about economic issues. Unfortunately, they’re not very good at it. He cites three glaring mistakes before giving up in dismay, and concludes: Perhaps most tellingly, the references to the chapter do not contain a single book that deals with economics as […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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