Search

Search results

1. Reality of government matters when assessing policy options

   In 1969, UCLA economist Harold Demsetz formalized an important concept in comparative economics—the Nirvana fallacy. His argument was that it was inappropriate, misleading and potentially counterproductive to compare hypothetical ideal ...

2. Potential permanent changes from our experience with COVID-19

   COVID Other Topics Jason Clemens Mark Hasiuk Tweet ...

3. Trudeau government smashes spending record, must right country’s fiscal ship

   Appeared in the Toronto Sun, May 27, 2020 The federal deficit—that is, the amount of government spending in excess of government revenues this year—is now estimated at more than $250 billion and counting. The sticker shock has many Canadians increasingly ...

4. Prime Ministers and Government Spending: Updated 2020 Edition

   This essay updates the previous 2020 measure of per-person program spending by prime ministers, adjusting for inflation, since 1870. This essay focuses on the potential level of spending in 2020 based on the government’s response to the COVID ...

5. Deferring Federal Taxes: Illustrating the Deficit Using the GST

   It is sometimes difficult for everyday Canadians to grasp the size of the federal deficit— estimated at $26.6 billion for 2019-20—because of its sheer size. This bulletin, along with subsequent planned instalments, aims to give Canadians that ...

6. Trudeau government COVID assistance lacks proper targeting

   There was a time when the policy debate in Canada focused on how generous government assistance should be for those in “need,” mainly low-income Canadians, resulting in targeted programs such as welfare for the working-age population, ...

7. Ottawa must remove disincentives to return to work

   The recent jobs report showed the painful impact of the recession, with three million jobs lost since February. Fortunately, many provincial economies are starting to reopen, which hopefully means the economy can begin to recover. But for ...

8. Misinformation clouds reignited debate over guaranteed basic income

   Appeared in the National Post, April 28, 2020 Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff during the financial crisis, famously said “ never allow a good crisis go to waste. ” The idea being that during a crisis, citizens are more open to large changes ...

9. Getting political responsibility right in times of crises

   More often than not, politicians are given too much credit for both economic expansions (i.e. prosperity) as well as recessions. That’s not to say that policies don’t matter because they do. But the idea that a politician or government ...

10. Ontario budget deficit likely larger than forecast

    We recently blogged on the Ontario government’s March 2020 Economic and Fiscal Update (hereafter simply referred to as the Fiscal Update), which we concluded was too optimistic in its economic and revenue assumptions, and included new ...