Tag Archives: economic history

Balancing Ontario’s Budget…In 1875

August 11, 2017 · by · in Canadian economy, Finance, Fiscal policy, Livio Di Matteo · Leave a comment

We often long for simpler times and search for them in our not so distant past. As an economist that does public finance and economic history, the public accounts of the past can offer me an interesting diversion. Governments, at any time in history always take in revenues and make payments and the budgets and […]

Another Foray into Data: New Macro-Financial Data

October 16, 2016 · by · in Econometrics, Everyday economics, International, Livio Di Matteo, Macro · 1 Comment

I think Stephen Gordon's Project Link and its piecing together of fragments of Statistics Canada data is a solid step in the right direction.  If our national statistical agency is not going to provide long-term consistent data series, then I suppose its up to the researchers to lead the way.  Another case in point is […]

Economic Vision A Mari Usque ad Mare

January 25, 2013 · by · in Canadian economy, Livio Di Matteo · 12 Comments

The motto that graces our national coat of arms is well known to Canadians but what is less well known is just how succinctly it encapsulates the economic vision of nineteenth Canadian business elites and the Fathers of Confederation, as well as summarizes the subsequent economic development of Canada in the half-century after Confederation. 

Seaways and Separatism

November 18, 2011 · by · in Canadian economy, Everyday economics, Frances Woolley · 39 Comments

Like every Canadian my age, I was taught about the St Lawrence Seaway in school. But I never fully understood why it was built or how it worked. So, while in Montréal this past weekend, I decided to cycle the length of the Lachine Canal, and around to the Lachine Rapids (pictured on the right), to […]