I can figure out how some things work. I can't figure out how other things work. But there are some things I can't figure out how it's even possible for them to work. Using macroeconomic models to make macroeconomic forecasts falls into that third category of things. I can't see how it's even possible to […]
From the OECD's Tax Database (Table II.1): The last few decades has seen extensive work documenting the deleterious effects of corporate income taxes – especially for small open economies. These lessons seem to have been taken to heart by policy-makers.
Like many Canadians, I am dreading the prospect of a federal election. We all have our own reasons for doing so, and here's mine. Now that the Liberals have announced that they – along with the NDP – will oppose the reduction in the corporate income tax rate that is planned for next year's budget, […]
Deputy Governor Pierre Duguay provides us with one of the more interesting trial balloons to come out of the Bank of Canada in a very long while: [T]he Bank views the possible elimination of the penny in terms of the potential impact on inflation, and has conducted some preliminary research on this issue. The findings, […]
Returning from a long weekend's canoeing, I remembered one of the main reasons I am a sticky-price macroeconomist. I checked to see if the economy had imploded while I was not worrying about it. April CPI up 0.1% from March; CAD/USD down about 2%; CAD/EUR up about 2%; TSX down around 3%; S&P500 down around […]
Yesterday saw an odd coincidence: The Globe and Mail ran a bunch of articles about the 10-figure salaries earned by a small number of people ([1],[2],[3]). McMaster University's Mike Veall passed along updated data (preliminary paper and data files [1], [2], [3]) confirming the trend in which income is increasingly concentrated among a small number […]
Anyone who has taught microeconomics has, at one time, had to deal with the question, That’s all very nice, professor, but how am I supposed to use any of this in the real world? If I’m running a business, I’m not going to know the demand curve for the product and I’m not going to […]
Next week at the Canadian Economics Association meetings I'm discussing a provocative paper by Andriana Bellou on the The Impact of Internet Diffusion on Age at First Marriage. The theory behind the model is straight from the e-harmony ads: "I decided to give eHarmony a try after several frustrating attempts to find someone to love, […]
The April CPI release is out; here is the updated graph of core inflation rates over various horizons: Core inflation started trending above the 2% target in November, and this trend explains why the Bank felt it necessary to use its April 20 interest rate decision to release itself from the conditional commitment to hold […]
Germany promises to keep pushing for a bank tax: Merkel to push financial reform at G20: German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday called for a global levy on banks, a new European rating agency and a co-ordinated exit from stimulus measures as Germany stepped up efforts to drive financial regulatory reform… She said Germany would […]
Recent Comments