Category Tax policy
Giving Deadlines
Last summer, while walking the streets of Kingston, I encountered a wandering horde of business economists, and joined them for drinks. We got onto behavioural economics and financial decision-making, and one of the business economics folks started talking about the charitable donations deadline. It would be a good idea, he argued, to move the charitable donations […]
Precautionary taxation vs tax-smoothing – on paying down the debt
Bob Murphy is arguing with Steve Landsburg over whether the debt/GDP ratio should be (slowly, eventually) reduced. So I have to join in. Plus, (with my Carleton colleague Vivek Dehejia) I actually published a paper once on this very topic (unfortunately not available online) (link here thanks to Keshav Srinivasan). (Just to forestall some comments, […]
One of These Countries is Not Like the Others
Given that the Finance Minister is presenting the Federal Fiscal Update today in Fredericton, it is instructive to review some fiscal comparisons right out of the release of the 2012 Federal Fiscal Reference Tables (which in turn used the OECD Economic Outlook May 2012 numbers for the international comparison). Figure 1 plots the ratio of […]
Five years of the Working Income Tax Benefit
Quietly, without (much) fanfare, Stephen Harper's Conservative government has been gradually promoting a new model for income support programs: the Working Income Tax Benefit, or WITB. On the face of it, WITB looks very similar to the Liberal government's signature program, Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB). Both WITB and CCTB provide cash support to low […]
How much revenue can the Quebec government generate by increasing tax rates on high earners?
The newly-elected Parti québécois government wants to (among other things) eliminate the 'health tax' introduced in the 2010 budget and make up the shortfall by introducing two new tax brackets at the top end of the income distribution: 28% for taxable incomes above $130,000 31% for taxable incomes above $250,000 The current top Quebec rate […]
Winter is Coming…
Well, here are some depressing statistics from Banca D’Italia’s recent release on Italy’s economy.
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 […]
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 […]
Designing exam questions: the realism-clarity trade-off
Which is the better exam question:
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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