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Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: A Small Basic Income as a Solution to the Magic List Problem
This post was written by Mike Veall of the Department of Economics at McMaster University. What if in a future crisis there is again a need to distribute money? As Jennifer Robson put it, “government doesn’t have a magic list...
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Do the self-employed opt out of the Canada Pension Plan?
In 2017, anyone with earnings was required to pay $4.95 in Canada Pension Plan contributions for every $100 of earnings (up to a maximum earnings threshold of $51,800 - rates here). For the employed, their $4.95 CPP/QPP contribution was matched...
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Movements in income inequality in Canada, 1944-2010
Here are the estimates for the Gini coefficients for Canada, taken from individual tax files (see here for more about where the data came from): As was the case for median incomes, I am encouraged by the fact that the...
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: 100 million is a really big number: a review of Doug Saunders' Maximum Canada
The following is a guest post by Mikal Skuterud, professor of economics at University of Waterloo Despite my interest in Canadian immigration policy, I’ve been hesitant to read Doug Saunders’ latest book Maximum Canada: Toward a Country of 100 Million....
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Two Price-setting Monopolists Meet in the Street
Two price-setting monopolists meet in the street. One says to the other: "I will buy 10 more of your overpriced bananas, but only if you buy 10 more of my overpriced apples in return. Deal?" The second monopolist accepts the...
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: More Thoughts on a Better Income Support System for the Next Crisis
This post was written by Mike Veall of the Department of Economics at McMaster University. I appreciated the comments on my earlier post, where I suggested that a small monthly Basic Income system would have the advantage of being able...
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Inequality and competition in a digital economy: a case study
Pokémon Go is an economy in miniature. There is exchange: players trade Pokémons and swap gifts. There is scarcity: the balls required to catch Pokémons are scarce, as is Pokémon storage capacity and other items in the game. There is...
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Project Link update: The evolution of the distribution of income in Canada, 1944-2010
Project Link has been updated; the Excel file with the data updated through to June 2021 is available here. I skipped the 2020 update for Project Link for a couple of reasons. There was obviously the distraction of the pandemic,...
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Rapid Vaccinations Can Help Avoid the `Third Wave’ in Ontario
The following is a guest post by Miguel Casares (Universidad Publica de Navarra, Spain), Paul Gomme (Concordia University), and Hashmat Khan (Carleton University) Of utmost importance is improving our understanding of the complex interactions between: (a) the epidemiology that describes...
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Can the Great Barrington proposal save the economy?
The Great Barrington Declaration argues against universal lock-downs: Those who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal. Simple hygiene measures, such as hand washing and staying home when sick should be practiced by everyone to...
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Presidents: do you get what you pay for?
In 1915, Woodrow Wilson earned $75,000 per year, or $1.9 million in 2018 dollars, for serving as President of the United States. The current incumbent of that office receives only a fraction of that amount: $400,000 annually. Congress has increased...
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: If you wanna run hot you gotta run steady
Canadian economist Richard Lipsey would always insist that the Phillips Curve is a curve, and not a straight line. Maybe because wages and prices are stickier down than up. Or maybe because unemployment can't go below 0%. Or both. Here's...
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: The Economics of Increasing Immigration During an Economic Crisis
The following is a guest post by Mikal Skuterud of University of Waterloo On February 14, the Federal Government issued 27,332 invitations for permanent residency to Canadian Experience Class (CEC) applicants in the Express Entry pool. To issue this unprecedented...
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Men, women, and the end of mandatory retirement
Back in 2014, I wrote a blog post on the end of mandatory retirement for university professors. I quoted a number of men who argued that having a standard retirement age hurts women. Here's an extract from that original post:...
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Pain, brioche, and the language of taxation
Ireland's Supreme Court recently ruled that the buns Subway uses in its sandwiches contain too much sugar to be considered "bread", and are thus subject to Value Added Tax (VAT). The decision lead to headlines and discussion along the lines...