Writing in the Institute for Research on Public Policy’s Policy Options magazine, York University’s (and PEF member) Dennis Raphael comments on poverty in Canada: In modern industrialized nations such as Canada, poverty is best understood as a barrier to citizens, communities and entire societies reaching their full potential. Living in poverty limits participation in a wide range of cultural, economic, […]
Read moreby Jim Stanford I’ve now been in Melbourne Australia for one month of my 12-month sabbattical. It’s always interesting for an economist to live somewhere else and compare the micro-minutae of life. It’s a sure-fire way to drive your travelling partners nuts. Here are my main impressions of economic life on the bottom side of the planet so far: 1. […]
Read moreNeoclassical economics, when looking at the labour market, plots its supply and demand curves, with all of their loaded and unrealistic assumptions, and finds an equilibrium wage and employment. Then it finds that anything added on to this simplistic and flawed model – taxation, unions, minimum wages – perturbs that equilibrium. Therefore those things must be bad! A new paper […]
Read moreJim Stanford looks at the OECD’s press for labour market “flexibility” in his Globe column: Traditional economics holds that a less regulated, more “flexible” labour market — freed from well-meaning but counterproductive government interference — will automatically find a better match between supply and demand, and hence reduce unemployment. This general view was roundly endorsed by the high priests of […]
Read moreThe latest Labour Force Survey, released today, has national unemployment down 0.3 percentage points to 6.1%, the lowest monthly rate since December 1974. So low that the Daily adds the following note on comparability: Comparing current Labour Force Survey estimates to those prior to 1976 In recent months, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) has been reporting very low unemployment rates. […]
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