Worthwhile Canadian Initiative

Canada: No country for old men (or women)

The Canadian population is aging, and getting old sucks - for economies, as well as for people.

There is nothing that can stop an individual from aging. Not face cream. Not hot yoga. 

Why I don't recognize your foreign educational credentials

The Canadian immigration literature seems to regard employers with a hint of disapproval. For example, a recent survey talks about "the failure to recognize foreign credentials" as if employers and others are, for some unaccountable reason, not able to recognize a credential when it's staring them in the face.

I've just spent the last couple of hours trying to recognize foreign educational credentials, and it's hard. Really hard.

How not to evaluate immigration policy

The Fraser Institute has released a study on immigration policy, but there's not much point in telling you its conclusions: the questions they ask are not worth answering.

The echoes of internment

The internment of Japanese-Canadians during the second World War was one of the less noble points in Canadian history. But this post is not about guilt or shame.

Economists are increasingly aware that history matters. A recent survey by the Harvard-based Canadian economist Nathan Nunn describes how decisions made centuries ago - for example, the types of institutions set up by European colonial powers - still shape countries' economic development. 

Japanese-Canadians have higher incomes and education levels than the population as a whole. Japanese-Canadians also have the highest rate of intermarriage of any ethnic group. The National Association of Japanese Canadians attributes this partly to the relatively small size of the Japanese-Canadian community, and partly to the community's scattered distribution.

Should recent immigrants be eligible for Old Age Security?

Most Canadian seniors are guaranteed an income above the poverty line by Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supplement and the Canada Pension Plan. Seniors are less likely to be poor than children or adults under 65 - with one exception. Mike Veall has found that 71 percent of recent immigrants aged 66 and older have incomes below the poverty line. Although recent immigrants were just 2 percent of the 66 and over age group, they constituted 20 percent of those in poverty (2004 numbers based on tax return data).

SpongeBob SquarePants and the Economics of Identity

SpongeBob SquarePants lives in a pineapple under the sea, makes the best burgers in Bikini Bottom, and loves life.  

Akerlof and Kranton's Economics of Identity explains why SpongeBob is so happy. An identity is a sense of self, "this is who I am". Every one of us has many identities - our gender, nationality, religion, and so on. Doing things that reaffirm our identity make us feel good. Doing something that violates our identity, for example, going into the opposite-sex restroom, cause inner conflict. SpongeBob is happy because his life experiences - flipping burgers - reaffirm his sense of himself as an excellent fry cook.