We're cutting $s to low-income 18 year-olds to access education, but we still have half a billion a year to make student loans interest-free for early-career 20-somethings "to help with the rent" AS DUMB AS A BAG OF HAMMERS.

For my teaching colleagues: Whenever I'm dealing with grade distributions, I remember this post from @frwoolley.bsky.social for the Worthwhile Canadian Initiative. Fortunately, it's archived: worthwhileblog.ca/2011/04/19/w... (That simple last transformation is so useful sometimes)

This week's post: Populism and Economic Prosperity mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/10/popu... We would expect populist governments to damage the economy. Evidence suggests that they do so in a big way. But we know from Brexit that the media typically nullifies the impact of this evidence on voters.

amazing graph from @amandamull.bsky.social's latest that explains everything from lift pass pricing to vehicle design www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

This covers some important sources of bias that arise from naive control strategies. Of value even if you don't care about the life-satisfaction ~ age association.

Great to chat to Dan Fumano @vancouversun.bsky.social about BC's property tax deferment program. My take: "the B.C. model, where significant interest rate subsidies are accessed by those with above-average home values, does not seem to be an effective use of government funds.”

The best way to lobby for retaining door-to-door mail delivery? Ask: where will the community mailboxes go? Rally the NIMFYS (not in my front yard)

Need #EconSky help pls! Need US data on lawyer's wages, or top 1%, 2% or top 10% wages that goes back to the 1960s. Have FRED's 9th decile earnings data fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LEU02... but it only goes back to 2000, and I'm looking more at the very top of the distribution. Indiv not hshd.

Always Time For Kindness.. Enjoy 💕 #SheShed

We've managed to import all of the pictures into Wordpress too, including the infamous drawing from the "why indifference curves are so hard to understand" blog post #EconSky worthwhileblog.ca/2012/09/12/w...

What happens when technology replaces people? Nick Rowe has some thoughts. A prescient post from the WCI vaults #EconSky

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative lives on at worthwhileblog.ca

Trying this again w/out typos; I thought that Miran might be upset at how much the Trump tariffs have diverged from his (admittedly weird) prescription from Nov. Now the White House has published his remarks on what he wants countries to do. NB #5 - "Simply write checks" #cdnpoli

"Accountability is fundamental. But this is not accountability to the micromanagement of rules and process: this was accountability to material results."

I finally understand boomers avocado meme. "Boomers bought houses at a time when saving a couple of pounds per day taking a packed lunch to work would give you a house deposit in eight years. For a millennial this would take two centuries." martinrobbins.substack.com/p/waspinomic...

It's the end of an era - as of September 30, 2025, typepad will shut down, taking Worthwhile Canadian Initiative with it worthwhile.typepad.com Hivemind - what were your favourite posts (e.g. ones you used for teaching)? And where would you recommend starting a new blog? Substack or...? #econsky

Dear first year students: Yes, this is worth your time and effort. Seriously. 👇🇨🇦

Can't wait to listen!

Look at what happens to male teacher salaries (blue line) v.s. female teacher salaries (red line) after collective bargaining laws expire.

how to teach descriptive writing #eyebleach #mademesmile www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmil...

This Day in Labor History: July 20, 1885. The British crown gave royal assent to the Chinese Immigration Act in Canada, which placed a $50 tax on Chinese workers and which reinforced the general global oppression of migrating Chinese workers around the world at this time!!

Cats are and always have been cyberpunks

Using time series graphs to make causal claims be like

Inspired by @kevinmilligan.bsky.social, I wrote up a version of my notes for the CEA panel on tax and transfer policy. open.substack.com/pub/robsonj/...

Manufacturing for thee, but not for me

Is that a two-fingered model Doodle is using on their landing page, or just a weird camera angle?

For many in the arts, humanities and social sciences in the relatively small world of Canadian academia, this is an earthquake: cha-shc.ca/announcement...

The *economics* of the special tariff carveout for British-made luxury vehicles is a bit too revealing.

Heterogeneous Returns to Active Labour Market Programs for Indigenous Populations by Feir, Foley, Jones in JHR jhr.uwpress.org/content/earl...

"the Prime Minister gazed slightly up and out at some distant horizon, which must be what it looks like when an economist’s soul leaves his body out of self-preservation" Gift link: www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/915a4b6...

How do fiscal policies shape recovery & resilience? Join us May 14 at CRDCN 2025 (10:30–11:30, University of Ottawa) for research on fiscal policies by Steven Ryan (uoft.bsky.social), Vincent Chandler (uqam.ca) & Laura Jimenez (dalhousieu.bsky.social). Register: crdcn.ca/crdcn-2025-2...

Joignez-vous à nous le 14 mai lors du congrès RCCDR 2025 (10 h 30 à 11 h 30, Université d’Ottawa) pour une séance sur les politiques fiscales avec Steven Ryan (uoft.bsky.social), Vincent Chandler (uqam.ca) et Laura Jimenez (dalhousieu.bsky.social). Inscrivez-vous: crdcn.ca/rccdr-2025-2...

With CBC now having called all ridings it's time for the land-vs-people-vote animation.

This is good stuff. archaeologymag.com/2025/04/stud...

Today's the day! #cdnecon #EconSky

🚨 The nomination deadline for the Mike McCracken Award is fast approaching! ⏳ Submit your nominations by April 4, 2025 🔗 www.economics.ca/mike-mccrack...

📢The submission deadline for the EPDC Student Research Competition has been extended to April 14! 🔗https://www.economics.ca/epdc

The $2,000 Mike McCracken Award for Economic Statistics recognizes theoretical and applied contributions to the development or use of economic statistics in Canada. Nomination deadline, April 4th. Info here www.economics.ca/mike-mccrack...

Fun 🧵 Canadian workers participated more in Victory bonds in WWII than American workers. U.S.: 45% bought bonds through payroll deductions Canada: 97% In the U.S. only 27% of bonds were sold to individuals, the rest to corporations and institutions. Here: half were bought by individuals. Why? 1/n

Come work with us in beautiful Canada! We are seeking a social science research leader with expertise in public policy. Please share with your networks! #academicsky #academia #PoliSciSky #polisky usask.csod.com/ux/ats/caree....

Register by March 9 for early bird rates and join us in Ottawa May 13-14! #CRDCN25RCCDR crdcn.ca/crdcn-2025-2...

Extension of Early Bird deadline! CRDCN 2025 plenaries announced! 1. National Research Infrastructures – Building Capacity and sustaining research excellence for Canada 2. Data management and supporting FAIRly restricted data

A persistent and large gender difference in academic promotion for female economists is found. However, no significant differences in promotion by race is found, from Donna K. Ginther, Shulamit Kahn, and Daria Milakhina https://www.nber.org/papers/w33538

“The scariest words in the English language are ‘I’m from the private sector and I’m here to maximize efficiency.’”

Here's the DOGE mistake, beautifully visualized: If you don't go where the money is, you don't save much money. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

This piece by @jrobson.bsky.social is such a smart, fact & experience based, scathing response to tech folks calling for DOGE in Canada (!) by comparing it to 1990s Liberal Program Review (!) This: “Program Review was a serious effort, by serious people who knew what f*** they were doing.”

#EconSky #cdnecon

Join us Feb. 27 at 12:30 p.m. to discuss the economics of Canadian immigration and the impacts of free children’s programs on women’s labour market outcomes. CRDCN & the Canadian Journal of Economics webinar will discuss two papers featured recently in the journal! Visit: crdcn.ca/events/crdcn...

US data from 1900-1970 shows people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are under-represented in academia, more so than in other high-skilled occupations. R Abramitzky, L Greska, S Pérez @ucdavis.bsky.social, J Price, C Schwarz, F Waldinger @econmunich.bsky.social cepr.org/voxeu/column... #EconSky

Reading A Man Called Ove, and a minor plot point is driving me crazy (thread)