Tag Archives: canada
Living Longer…and Longer….
The OECD Health Data 2013 final update numbers are out and for the first time average life expectancy at birth in the OECD countries (numbers for 2011) exceeds 80 years at 80.1. This represents a gain of ten years since 1970. When life expectancy for men and women at age 65 is examined, there are […]
Canadian Housing Markets: Bubbles if Necessary but Not Necessarily a Bubble
The debate over whether or not Canada’s housing market is a bubble that is going to crash heated up again this month. Earlier this month, the Financial Times warned that the Canadian housing market was “perched precariously at its peak”. Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz said this week that Canada’s housing market was not […]
Migration and Population Size
There was a recent piece in the New York Times on Italy’s economic situation and how its high unemployment rate and stagnant economy appears to have led to a return of Italian emigration. This story struck a personal chord given my own parents came to Canada during the post World War Two wave of immigration. […]
Gross Saving: A Comparison
I’m teaching public finance this term and just finished a discussion of the economic effects of income taxation on saving using a simple two period model of inter-temporal consumption. I rounded out the discussion with a comparison of personal savings rates between Canada and the United States and how their savings rates have converged since […]
Trade, Growth and … Brazil
In a recent address on global growth and Canadian export prospects to the Economic Club of Canada, the Bank of Canada’s Tiff Macklem noted that Canada’s share of world trade has been in decline for over a decade and that the loss of global trade share has been the second highest of the G-20. Given […]
Shifting Populations, Shifting Economies
Statistics Canada just released its total population estimates for 2013 and the picture shows declining shares of population not just for Quebec and the Atlantic region, but also for parts of the west. While the population share of the western provinces has grown over the period 1983 to 2013, this increase is due to Alberta […]
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 […]
Wealth, Religion and Inequality
In nineteenth century Canada, religion was a very important institutional and social force and via its social networks affected employment opportunities and ultimately income. Via both direct and indirect effects, religious affiliation invariably affected asset accumulation and wealth and by extension must also have affected wealth inequality. Indeed, when it comes to examining the wealth […]
Explaining the Health Spending Slowdown
Canadian Institute for Health Information numbers show that there is a moderation in health expenditure growth underway. From a growth rate of 6.1 percent in 2010, the CIHI estimates growth in total nominal health spending of 3.9 percent in 2011 and 3.4 percent in 2012. Over the same period, the health expenditure to GDP ratio […]
Visible minorities: Distinctly Canadian
As far as I know, Canada is the only country that divides its population into "visible minorities" and "non-visible minorities." In this post, I describe how, and why, Canada counts people this way. A person's visible minority status is ascertained by asking: "Is this person….White, South Asian (e.g., East Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, etc.), Chinese, Black, […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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