Archive for the ‘Policy Context’ Category
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Dinging the rent-seekers
Business leaders try to maximize economic rents; economists try to keep them as close to zero as possible… winners aren’t much interested in abandoning their privileged status in order to increase total incomes. And since rent-seekers are invariably well-connected in political circles… they’re usually pretty good at defending their positions… Moreover, the usual policy remedies for dealing with rent seeking are losing political support…. figuring out the technicalities of taxing economic rents is going to move higher up on the policy agenda.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, privatization, standard of living, tax
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The rules have to change again – we must tame globalization
The failure of globalization to deliver on the promises of mainstream politicians has surely undermined trust and confidence in the “establishment.” And governments’ offers of generous bailouts for the banks that had brought on the 2008 financial crisis, while leaving ordinary citizens largely to fend for themselves, reinforced the view that this failure was not merely a matter of economic misjudgments… neoliberals, apparently worried about adverse incentive effects, have opposed welfare measures that would have protected the losers.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, Health, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Province should protect workers from being fired without cause
A Supreme Court of Canada ruling now protects federally regulated companies from firing workers without cause. The Ontario government should follow suit for provincially regulated industries… That should set a precedent for provincially regulated companies, not to mention industries that are currently unregulated in Ontario such as farming, flower growing, fishing and accounting… Ontario is currently conducting consultations to update the Employment Standards Act.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
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Canada’s success within TPP requires change to procurement practices
By shifting to QBS (qualifications based selection), Canadian governments can ensure the most efficient use of taxpayer money in Canada, protect against the hiring of lesser-qualified international firms simply because they are cheaper and help Canadian firms increase exports of their services into new markets around the globe. Regardless of the recent headlines, Canada’s future lies in global trade.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
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Canada is the most tax competitive country for businesses in the world: KPMG
Canada has quietly become the most tax competitive country for businesses globally in all sectors including digital services, research and development, corporate services and manufacturing, according to a study by international tax firm KPMG… In fact, according to the study, all 17 Canadian cities on the list have lower total effective tax costs compared to the U.S. cities that made the cut… But despite Canada’s high ranking it’s worth noting that firms look at total cost, not just tax.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, tax
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Don’t Believe Claims $15 Minimum Wage Will Cost Jobs
You can easily find economics research papers to support your position on the minimum wage, no matter what it is… in 2013, economist John Schmitt reviewed more than 10 years of research and concluded that “the weight of that evidence points to little or no employment response to modest increases in the minimum wage.” “Modest” is subjective. But Premier Clark’s 28 per cent increase in one year had no obvious impact on employment.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
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Ottawa should name and shame offshore tax cheats
The Americans have rightly determined that the public benefit of transparency outweighs the tax-avoider’s right to privacy. Canada should make public exposure a requirement of any deal it strikes with scofflaws. The benefits would be twofold: the naming and shaming deters other offenders, and the disclosure allows citizens to understand just how thoroughly they are being cheated — and thus how much work the government must do to restore tax fairness.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living, tax
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Canada willingly makes tax deals with tax havens
The 92 tax treaties now signed with countries such as Barbados, Jamaica and Malta currently translate into billions of dollars moving out of Canada — nearly all tax free. This includes 22 tax information exchange agreements, where the sharing of tax information is intended to weed out evaders… Canadian academics, auditors general and politicians have all warned some of these treaties have essentially done little else but give legal means for Canadian companies to move profits offshore to financially accommodating jurisdictions where they can pay lower corporate taxes.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Why Canadian academics stay away from government policy work
The problem with leaving policy-makers to insiders is that a system in which outsiders get presented with a series of faits accomplis is not consistent with most people’s views of democracy. And even if the process does produce good policies, subsequent governments will feel free to reverse them. The only way to ensure that a policy will survive a change in government is to obtain broad public buy-in… But if there are few incentives for us to do policy research, there are no incentives for us to engage the public: you won’t get tenure by writing blog posts and op-eds.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Here’s why the EI system is not working and what can be done
In the mid 1990s, the federal government shifted from a ‘weeks’ system to an ‘hours’ system, and at the same time they basically tripled the number of hours you needed to work in order to qualify… The second significant development is the rise in the number of self-employed and contract workers which make up the labour force… We’ve got people that are having trouble breaking into the labour market and we’ve got a bunch of workers that have paid into EI that aren’t being covered
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, rights, youth
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