Archives: Popular Writing

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Driving in the passing lane: The Canadian disease

First published in the Globe and Mail, Wednesday, April 3, 2013 Ontario’s rules of the road are clear: Any vehicle travelling at less than the normal speed of travel should drive in the right-hand lane. Similar laws apply in British Columbia, Alberta and other provinces. So why do people drive slowly in the passing... More

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Budget was clear on research spending. Will universities get the message?

First published Tuesday, Mar. 26 2013 A chart, buried deep in the budget (see infographic), shows Canada spends more on research and development in the higher education sector than any other G-7 country. Every picture in the federal budget plan tells a story. This one’s explicit message is that Canada is a world leader... More

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Sorry, but Canada was never the No. 1 place to live

First published Tuesday, March 19, 2013 For much of the 1990s, Canada topped the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI). Politicians declared we were the best place in the world to live. This year, Canada slipped to 11th place. What happened? The HDI captures three dimensions of human development: health, measured by life expectancy,... More

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Canada’s shame: EI is stealing from the young

This year, all across Canada, students are serving ice cream, painting houses, doing landscaping, working in internships and co-op placements. Every single one of these employees is legally required to pay Employment Insurance premiums. The vast majority will never benefit from their contributions. In 2010, the most recent year for which data is... More

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Jets test the economics of home ice advantage

Frances Woolley is a professor of economics at Carleton University. Andrew Kelly is an economics student at Carleton University of Chicago economist Tobias Moskowitz and Sports Illustrated writer Jon Wertheim stirred up some controversy last year by claiming, in their book Scorecasting , that home team advantage is primarily due to officiating... More

Thursday, April 5, 2012

We’re all suckers when a government bets on casinos

On Wednesday, I received a call from a reporter desperately trying to find a credible expert prepared to speak in favour of the OLG’s plans to build a downtown casino in Ottawa. “We need balance,” he said. Which made me wonder, does balanced journalism mean finding people to support stupid ideas? There are two... More

Friday, March 2, 2012

Trouble saving money? Drop English, speak German

Linguists have found that language shapes our perception of colour, our awareness of social status and hierarchy, even the way that we describe everyday objects such as bridges or forks. Now a new study by Keith Chen of Yale University argues that language has a profound impact on economic behaviour, influencing savings rates and... More

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

How looming Ontario cuts will spark a ‘she-cession’

Men were hit hard by the 2008-9 economic downturn, with losses of construction jobs (98 per cent male), transport jobs (90 per cent male), and manufacturing jobs (70 per cent male). Male unemployment rose so quickly that people began to talk about a “he-cession.” Three years on, a tenuous “he-covery” seems to be under... More

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Should Canada’s immigrants play by Australian rules?

Australia is like Canada, only different. There, like here, one in five people were born abroad. Like us, they have a points based immigration system, favouring skilled workers Yet while Canada’s recent immigrants struggle in the labour market, earning significantly less than the native born, Australia’s immigrants experience a much smaller... More

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Raising the retirement age: Consider it a done deal

If Stephen Harper was to announce tomorrow that the age at which people will be eligible for Old Age Security was going to increase to 67 in the year 2025, who would protest? Not the over 50s: they'll still be able to start claiming at 65 as planned. Not many of the under 50s,... More

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Do employers care about a university’s reputation?

Which university should you choose if your goal is to get a job when you graduate? The question is surprisingly difficult to answer. Raw job placement numbers confound the myriad factors that influence labour market success. For example, students from Mount Royal University graduate into the Alberta labour market, while students from University of... More

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Are economics driving NHL’s shootout motives?

It's economics: people respond to incentives. Under the current NHL point system, a team is awarded two points for a win during regulation play. But if a game goes into overtime, there are three points available: two for the winner, one for the loser. Under this system, two evenly matched teams can do better,... More

Load More →