Economics Commons^™

2021-4 Innis Lecture: Return On Student Loans In Canada, Lance Lochner, Qian Liu, Martin Gervais

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

This paper uses new administrative data with detailed borrower information and lengthy repayment histories from the Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP) to measure rates of return on undergraduate student loans. We document substantial heterogeneity in returns based on information available at the time loans were disbursed, including province of residence, field of study, and institution of attendance. Field of study is a particularly important determinant of rates of return, explaining 22% of the variation in predicted returns across borrowers. We explore the implications of this variation for CSLP cross-subsidization across borrowers and potential risk-based loan limits. Given the variation in …

2021-1 Personal Gini Coefficients, James B. Davies

Department of Economics Research Reports

No abstract provided.

2021-2 A Category For Extensive-Form Games, Peter A. Streufert

Department of Economics Research Reports

No abstract provided.

2021-3 Specifying A Game-Theoretic Extensive Form As An Abstract 5-Ary Relation, Peter A. Streufert

Department of Economics Research Reports

This paper specifies an extensive form as a 5-ary relation (i.e. set of quintuples) which satisfies certain abstract axioms. Each quintuple is understood to list a player, a situation (e.g. information set), a decision node, an action, and a successor node. Accordingly, the axioms are understood to specify abstract relationships between players, situations, nodes, and actions. Such an extensive form is called a "5-form", and a "5-form game" is defined to be a 5-form together with utility functions. The paper's main result is to construct a bijection between (a) those 5-form games with information-set situations and (b) Gm games (Streufert …

2021-5 Lucas (1972), A Personal View From The Wrong Side Of The Subsequent Fifty Years, David Laidler

Department of Economics Research Reports

Lucas (1972) was a paper that permanently changed the course of macroeconomics, even though its “money supply surprise” model lost its central place in the area within a decade because of empirical difficulties. However, Lucas’s novel methodology, based on clearing markets and rational expectations, still dominates orthodox macroeconomic theorising. An unfortunate side effect of this has been that, because mainstream models have no analytic room for money to play a key role in economic activity, the theoretical case for taking that role seriously was undermined just at the time when traditional monetarist macro-models were facing empirical problems. The consequences of …

2021-4 Old Age Savings And House Price Shocks, Rory Mcgee

Department of Economics Research Reports

Elderly households hold most of their wealth in housing, maintain high levels of wealth throughout retirement, and often leave bequests. The value of their houses are subject to large shocks. To what extent do these shocks aect their savings, consumption, and bequests? Answering this question requires separating precautionary savings, bequest motives, and the desire to remain in one's home. I develop and estimate a structural model of retirement savings decisions with realistic risks, housing, and heterogeneity in bequest preferences. I exploit policy changes to the taxation of housing and bequests to separately identify the different motives for holding wealth. Estimates …

2021-6 The Inner Workings Of A Hub-And-Spoke Cartel In The Automotive Fuel Industry, Daniel Chaves, Marco Duarte

Department of Economics Research Reports

We analyze a hub-and-spoke cartel in the Brazilian automotivefuel industry. Using the court documents and detailed data on the supply chain we uncover three mechanisms beyond information sharing used by wholesalers (hub) to help retailers (spokes) solve the obstacles of price coordination: vertical transfers across asymmetric spokes; subsidies during punishment; and cost stabilization. We argue that wholesalers benefited from the cartel by being the exclusive supplier during the scheme. We use the synthetic control approach to quantify how successful the cartel was in increasing markups. We find that not only retailers, but wholesalers benefited from the cartel.

"At The Very Beginning, There's This Dream." The Role Of Utopia In The Workings Of Local And Cryptocurrencies, Diane-Laure Arjalies

Business Publications

Since the 2008 financial crisis, the number of alternative currencies aiming at transforming global financial institutions, such as local and complementary currencies (LCC) and cryptocurrencies, has exploded. Yet the motivations and workings of such monies are relatively unknown. This chapter aims to fill this gap by providing a framework that uncovers the ideals pursued by alternative currencies, and the effects of those ideals on the production of money. To do so, I present a comparative analysis of the valuation infrastructure – the processes through which value(s) is produced – of one LCC, Sol Violette, and three cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ğ1 …

2020-1 The Millennials' Transition From School-To-Work, Audra J. Bowlus, Yuet-Yee Linda Wong

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2020-2 Prices, Profits, Proxies, And Production, Victor H. Aguiar, Roy Allen, Nail Kashaev

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

Abstract This paper studies nonparametric identification and counterfactual bounds for heterogeneous firms that can be ranked in terms of productivity. Our approach works when quantities and prices are latent rendering standard approaches inapplicable. Instead, we require observation of profits or other optimizing-values such as costs or revenues, and either prices or price proxies of flexibly chosen variables. We extend classical duality results for price-taking firms to a setup with discrete heterogeneity, endogeneity, and limited variation in possibly latent prices. Finally, we show that convergence results for nonparametric estimators may be directly converted to convergence results for production sets.

2020-3 Optimal Contracting With Altruistic Agents: A Structural Model Of Medicare Payments For Dialysis Drugs, Martin Gaynor, Nirav Mehta, Seth Richards-Shubik

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

We study physician agency and optimal payment policy in the context of an expensive medication used in dialysis care. Using Medicare claims data we estimate a structural model of treatment decisions, in which physicians differ in their altruism and marginal costs, and this heterogeneity is unobservable to the government. In a novel application of nonlinear pricing methods, we theoretically characterize the optimal unrestricted contract in this screening environment with multidimensional heterogeneity. We combine these results with the estimated model to construct the optimal contract and simulate counterfactual outcomes. The optimal contract is a flexible fee-for-service contract, which pays for reported …

2020-8 Perceived And Actual Option Values Of College Enrollment, Yifan Gong, Todd Stinebrickner, Ralph Stinebrickner

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2020-7 Marriage, Children, And Labor Supply: Beliefs And Outcomes, Yifan Gong, Todd Stinebrickner, Ralph Stinebrickner

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2020-6 The Eitc And Maternal Time Use: More Time Working And Less Time With Kids?, Jacob Bastian, Lance Lochner

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2020-5 Returns To Skill And The Evolution Of Skills For Older Men, Qian Liu, Lance Lochner, Youngmin Park, Youngki Shin

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2020-4 Child Skill Production: Accounting For Parental And Market-Based Time And Goods Investments, Elizabeth Caucutt, Lance Lochner, Joseph Mullins, Youngmin Park

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2020-9 Self-Employment And Development, Juan Herreno, Sergio Ocampo

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2020-2 Botswana's Fiscal Policy, Monetary Policy, And Exchange Rate Policy: Three Instruments And Three Targets?, J Clark Leith

Department of Economics Research Reports

No abstract provided.

2020-1 Distributional Effects Of Flooding, With An Application To A Major Urban Area, James B. Davies, Samantha L. Black

Department of Economics Research Reports

No abstract provided.

2020-3 Reforming Canada's Disaster Assistance Programs, James B. Davies

Department of Economics Research Reports

No abstract provided.

2020-4 The Category Of Node-And-Choice Extensive-Form Games, Peter A. Streufert

Department of Economics Research Reports

This paper develops the category NCG. Its objects are node-and-choice games, which include essentially all extensive-form games. Its morphisms allow arbitrary transformations of a game's nodes, choices, and players, as well as monotonic transformations of the utility functions of the game's players. Among the morphisms are subgame inclusions. Several characterizations and numerous properties of the isomorphisms are derived. Also, the game-theoretic concepts of no-absentmindedness, perfect-information, and (pure-strategy) Nash-equilibrium are shown to be isomorphically invariant. Finally, full subcategories are defined for choice-sequence games and choice-set games, and relationships among these two subcategories and NCG itself are expressed and derived via isomorphic …

2020-5 European Puts, Credit Protection, And Endogenous Default, Jorge Cruz Lopez, Alfredo Ibanez

Department of Economics Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Behind Quality, There Is Equality: An Analysis Of Scientific Capital Accumulation In Social-Democratic Welfare Regimes, Olivier Bégin-Caouette

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

ABSTRACT

Trade-offs between quality and equality are at the forefront of multiple debates in higher education, and one conceptual tool to approach societies’ adjustment in resolving these trade-offs is the welfare regime typology. Relying on the theory of academic capitalism and using research production as a proxy for quality in higher education, this study analyses how social-democratic welfare regimes resolve the trade-off between comparatively high levels of academic research production, access to higher education and equal citizens’ living conditions. Interviews with 56 system actors suggest that equality is perceived to contribute to academic freedom, public investments in research and the …

Sfns Household Economic Leakage Project, Elissa Noah

Head and Heart Posters 2019

Southern First Nation Secretariat (SFNS) is an organization appointed to seven local member First Nation communities that commits to bridge programs and services for enriched communities while respecting the diversity of culture, values, and traditions. First Nations people make up 4.9% of Canada’s population with 634 communities. First Nation economy circumstances are widely diverse and often uncertain. The relationship is mostly unknown. Therefore, the purpose of the economic leakage project is to help determine how much SFNS member First Nations' governments spend outside of their communities, and how it can be recaptured to enhance their economies and well-being.

Sfns Household Economic Leakage Project, Elissa Noah

Learning with your Head & Heart

Southern First Nation Secretariat (SFNS) is an organization appointed to seven local member First Nation communities that commits to bridge programs and services for enriched communities while respecting the diversity of culture, values, and traditions. First Nations people make up 4.9% of Canada’s population with 634 communities. First Nation economy circumstances are widely diverse and often uncertain. The relationship is mostly unknown. Therefore, the purpose of the economic leakage project is to help determine how much SFNS member First Nations' governments spend outside of their communities, and how it can be recaptured to enhance their economies and well-being.

Sfns Household Economic Leakage Project, Elissa Noah

2019 Cohort

Southern First Nation Secretariat (SFNS) is an organization appointed to seven local member First Nation communities that commits to bridge programs and services for enriched communities while respecting the diversity of culture, values, and traditions. First Nations people make up 4.9% of Canada’s population with 634 communities. First Nation economy circumstances are widely diverse and often uncertain. The relationship is mostly unknown. Therefore, the purpose of the economic leakage project is to help determine how much SFNS member First Nations' governments spend outside of their communities, and how it can be recaptured to enhance their economies and well-being.

Limit Pricing Oligopoly Market Evidence From Tamilnadu Politics, Pazhani Samy

Economics Publications

Limit pricing oligopoly market is a hypothetical market explained with various hypotheses in the literature which has limited scope for the real world economic evidence and its application which leads the impact of the operation of such market is mostly unknown among the policymakers and academics. The available literature evidences are mostly neglected to explore the scope of such markets conditions and failed to direct appropriate policies.

In India among most of the national level parties and in the states levels there are two only have been surviving over the long periods. This trigger the intuition to inquire into answer …

2019-1 Trading Motives In Asset Markets, Zijian Wang

Department of Economics Research Reports

I study how trading motives in asset markets affect equilibrium outcomes and welfare. I focus on two types of trading motives – informational and allocational. I show that while a fully separating equilibrium is the unique equilibrium when trading motives are known, multiple equilibria exist when trading motives are unknown. Moreover, forcing traders to reveal their trading motives may harm welfare. I also use this model to study how an asset market may exit a fire sale equilibrium and how government programs may eliminate private information and improve agents’ welfare.

2019-2 Immigrants And Exports: Firm-Level Evidence From Canada, Miguel Cardoso, Ananth Ramanarayanan

Department of Economics Research Reports

No abstract provided.

2019-3 Discerning Solution Concepts, Nail Kashaev, Bruno Salcedo

Department of Economics Research Reports

No abstract provided.