Blog Profile / Worthwhile Canadian Initiative
| URL : | http://worthwhile.typepad.com/worthwhile_canadian_initi/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Business & Finance / Economics | |
| Posts on Regator: | 756 | |
| Posts / Week: | 6.8 | |
| Archived Since: | April 1, 2011 | |
Blog Post Archive
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...
Marianne Ferber: A little giant
photo from "Engendering Economics" by Zohreh Emami and Paulette Olson Marianne Ferber was proud to have been a Canadian economist, if only for a little while. The "Canadian" part was due to astute planning by her father, Karl Abeles. Marianne...
If you don't like low interest rates, you want the Bank of Canada to loosen monetary policy now
Two weeks ago I wrote a post "Monetary stimulus vs financial stability is a false trade-off". My opening lines in that post were: "There's an idea floating around out there that I fear may be influential. And that idea is...
Do New Keynesians need to assume (much) labour hoarding?
We know that measured productivity falls in a recession (relative to trend). Real Business Cycle theorists say that this is because a negative productivity shock is what caused the recession. Keynesians say that a negative aggregate demand shock is what...
Which is the most bike friendly city in Canada?
The 2006 Canadian census asked people about their usual mode of transport to work or school. Only a small fraction of those answering the question reported that they cycle to work or school, and city with the highest percentage of.....
Why bikes are cooler than cars
The car is in decline. The Economist says so, and so does the New York Times. Cars are boring; bikes are cooler. Here are the top 10 reasons why. 10. Cars are for stuff People from the pre-computer era have...
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...
Pictures of Selma-Montgomery
Professor James Dean took a somewhat unusual approach to teaching SFU's undergraduate money macro course. He told us to read David Laidler's Demand for Money, gave the class a brief lecture each week, and a very long coffee break. Over...
Can Chinese Tourism Save Europe?
In its long history, France and Paris have been invaded numerous times but the latest invasion from the East is not from Les Allesmands but from China. Its only May but Paris is already inundated with tourists and many of...
Is the abandonment of religion greatly exaggerated?
The headlines around the release of the National Household Survey have proclaimed "Many Canadians are losing their religion". Yet it is not obvious this claim stands up to serious scrutiny. Canada's religious profile evolves in two fundamentally different ways. First,...
Yup, the NHS did produce some weird data
While writing a short comment for today's Globe, I put together a table comparing the 2011 National Household Survey data on ethnicity with the 2006 data. As the raw numbers didn't make it the Globe article, I'm reproducing them here:...
Macroeconomics when all goods are non-rival
Sometimes it's good to build really weird models. Because bits of the real world are a bit weird, even if the whole world isn't as totally weird as the model, and taking an extreme case can help us understand the...
Testing productivity shocks vs labour hoarding in a traditional industry?
This is just an idea that's been floating uselessly in my mind for some time. I have never been able to apply it. But maybe someone out there could. This isn't an earth-shattering post. Maybe someone else has already thought...
Monetary stimulus vs financial stability is a false trade-off
There's an idea floating around out there that I fear may be influential. And that idea is horribly wrong. Which makes it dangerous. And I want to try to kill it. But macro is hard. And it's not easy to...
Financial literacy in the popcorn aisle
A short financial literacy quiz: Take a look at the picture on the right. How much does one box of popcorn cost? The correct answer, for this particular box, is $1.50. However it is not obvious that "two for $3"...
How should economists respond to the National Household Survey release?
On May 8th, the results of the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) will be released. The voluntary nature of the NHS will compromise the quality of the data collected. For example, the National Household Survey asks people about their religious...
Taxation and Economic Growth
I had a bit of an intellectual crisis this evening as I pondered the conventional wisdom in economics regarding the choice between reducing consumption taxes or income taxes. Briefly put, the simple conventional wisdom is that taxes on consumption are...
How quickly does hotness fade?
Ratemyprofessors.com allows students to grade a professor's clarity, helpfulness, ease and - just for fun - rate their appearance as "hot" or "not". A professor with more hot than not votes is awarded a chili pepper on the ratemyprofessors.com web...
What happened in 2008?
1. Did a financial crisis cause a fall in expected and actual aggregate demand? (With central banks being unable or unwilling to do enough to stop it). 2. Or did a fall in expected and actual aggregate demand cause (or...
The (slowly) changing face of Ontario economics departments
When I was an undergraduate, many of my professors were Canadian born and American trained. The demographic profile of Canada, and of Canadian economics classrooms, has changed since then, as our country has recruited high skilled immigrants from around the...