Category International
The Differential Timing of the Great Depression
The Economic History Association meetings currently underway in Washington D.C. have a number of fascinating sessions including several on economic depression and financial crises. One paper by Thilo Albers (Humboldt University Berlin) and Martin Uebele (University of Groningen) is particularly interesting given that it presents a new monthly international dataset for the interwar period (1925-1936) […]
Revolution, Income and Regional Decline: The American Revolution and the First American Great Depression
Using the framework of neoclassical institutional economics, new institutions are innovated if the perceived expected net gains are positive. That is, the benefits from the change should exceed the implementation costs plus the net benefits of the existing institutional arrangement. A primary ingredient of those gains must invariably translate into higher per capita income. As […]
Canadian Macro Performance: Better than the G-7 but…
We are of course quite used to repeated claims that Canada has outperformed all other G-7 countries in job creation and GDP growth during the recovery from the 2009 recession. Our better fiscal performance is also trotted out especially with respect to the net debt to GDP ratio. However, if instead of the G-7, we […]
Does the End of Growth Mean the Rise of Inequality?
Classical economics argued that eventually a stationary state or the end of economic growth was going to be reached but they did not forsee the technological change of 19th century industrialization. The result was income and wealth growing by leaps and bounds. However, yet another paper – this time by Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman […]
Mourning Detroit
Well, I have never been to Detroit and have only glimpsed it live from across the river in Windsor once. Yet, its bankruptcy has caught my interest because for the longest time in Thunder Bay we used to get our cable feed from Detroit (they then shifted away a few years ago to Minneapolis) and […]
Crime and Macroeconomics
The Banca D’Italia – Italy’s central bank – supports and promotes a wide range of research activity including quite a bit even in the area of economic history, which for an economic historian like myself is especially heart warming to see. The ongoing Euro Zone economic downturn and crisis naturally also spawns a lot of […]
This is what a barrier to trade looks like
The line-ups for the Kazungula ferry start two or three kilometres from the water on either side of the Zambezi river. Each line up might be 150 trucks long. But the Kazungula crossing is served by just two pontoon ferries. Each ferry takes one truck, and makes the return journey in half an hour or so, transporting perhaps […]
The Challenges of Mark Carney’s European “Mission Civilisatrice”
In his farewell address to Canada before assuming the reins of the Bank of England, Mark Carney argues that Canada works because of the strength of the Canadian federation when it comes to its institutional framework and its four critical advantages of responsible fiscal policy, sound monetary policy, a single and resilient financial system and […]
The Interest Rate Time Bomb
The recent policy debate over whether its time for interest rates to start to rise after being at the lowest levels since the Great Depression for nearly five years shows just how much of a policy box governments are in when it comes to fiscal and monetary policy. Never mind the debate over whether there […]
Three Short Observations on the Economics of Waterways
The Rhine River is the heart of significant economic activity as a European transport and commercial corridor. Running 1,233 km from the Alps to the North Sea, its rich economic hinterland generates commercial traffic, which made it attractive as a source of revenue for regional lords and masters for centuries. Hence, the numerous castles, which […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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