Frances Woolley

buy now pay later debt explosion

"the pipeline will either die — which will give Smith and the separatists an important new grievance — or will be pushed through in a way that is toxic to Carney’s existing coalition and unfair to the formidable Indigenous people of northern BC, who cannot be treated as an afterthought" Gift Link.

🚨 Postdoctoral opportunities! 🚨

Hello #econsky! We are hiring 2 postdocs in the department of economics at UCalgary for those working in *electricity economics*

Term: 2 years
Pay: $80,000/yr + benefits + $10k research allowance
Start: July 2026

Details in next two posts 👇

Also as the American economics association discovered when it looked into harassment in the profession, if a prof at another university harasses you there absolutely nothing you can do. All procedures are internal to uni only, but much bad stuff happens at conferences

What if the train brought the job to you? How public transit moves opportunity closer—and changes who gets hired: Guest post by Akhila Kovvuri

Today's JMP features @akhila-kovvuri.bsky.social's work which shows how the extension of the metro system in Delhi generated new jobs around transit stations. Using staggered DiD, she shows consumer-focused firms move in, with new jobs. Large gain for women. blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...?

Could argue the misogyny Summers expressed both publicly while president of Harvard and in emails to Epstein says more about the culture at our most elite institutions than any of the frontpage freakouts over academia in the past few years but hey

For a while there was a line on the Canadian Economics Association website about "the hotel rooms are suitable for interviewing because they have a bed and seating area." First thing I did as CEA Secretary Treasurer was change that text!

Does that cooling rack fold for storage?

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Crispy Tofu with Honey-Sesame Glaze Tender, caramelized Brussels sprouts with extra crispy tofu and brown rice, topped with an irresistible sweet-and-spicy glaze. Gluten free and easily vegan.

The cookie and kate recipe for roasted brussel sprouts and tofu. cookieandkate.com/roasted-brus...

I know that the job market is rough this year for Econ PhDs. @utoronto.ca has expanded its postdoc funding. If you are on the market and work on school finance or early childhood education and are interested in a PostDoc, let me know! #econsky #educsky postdoc.sgs.utoronto.ca/current-post...

A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women

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This is such interesting and impt work--and especially so in light of today's voucher push and the fact that, per @douglasharris9.bsky.social, the average private school in the US is a low-tuition school serving 30 kids. It'd be pretty cheap to create new, low-quality, segregative private schools.

Not sure if it fits but Common People by Pulp is a banger. More class reproduction than intergenerational mobility.

We're cutting $s to low-income 18 year-olds to access education, but we still have half a billion a year to make student loans interest-free for early-career 20-somethings "to help with the rent"

AS DUMB AS A BAG OF HAMMERS.

What’s the best way to scale grades? It happens. An exam question is not clear, or more challenging than intended. The exam is marked by an over-zealous TA. Or perhaps the students haven't studied as hard as they should have. As …

For my teaching colleagues: Whenever I'm dealing with grade distributions, I remember this post from @frwoolley.bsky.social for the Worthwhile Canadian Initiative. Fortunately, it's archived:
worthwhileblog.ca/2011/04/19/w... (That simple last transformation is so useful sometimes)

I'm working on a paper that uses them right now, so had a small moment of panic when I saw your post!

Why oh no?

Populism and Economic Prosperity Mainstream political parties normally claim that populist parties, if they ever got to power, would damage the economy. We have clear evid...

This week's post: Populism and Economic Prosperity mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/10/popu...
We would expect populist governments to damage the economy. Evidence suggests that they do so in a big way. But we know from Brexit that the media typically nullifies the impact of this evidence on voters.

amazing graph from @amandamull.bsky.social's latest that explains everything from lift pass pricing to vehicle design www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

This covers some important sources of bias that arise from naive control strategies. Of value even if you don't care about the life-satisfaction ~ age association.

Yes!!!! For example life satisfaction bump associated with marriage declines with age (caregiving for older spouse etc). If you assume constant marriage premium you think "why are single olds so much more satisfied than we expect? It must because satisfaction increases with age." Nope.

But anecdata suggests many older folks have a "I don't want to be in debt" attitude. It's mostly those who figure "I can take this almost free money and get a better return elsewhere" who take advantage of deferment.

I did some quick calculations with the the 2021 Census PUMF, and figured that at least half of BC's homeowning households meet the age criteria for property tax deferment (population aging+delayed homebuying). Not exactly a precisely targeted program!

Illustrates a more general point about policy in an aging society: when 1/5 or 1/4 of the population is 65+, need to focus resources on those who need them the most. And that's not folks with a paid off mortgage and a decent income.

How B.C.'s property tax system delivers big benefits to multimillionaires, and why some say it needs to change B.C.'s property tax system is uniquely generous for wealthy homeowners. Some people think that should change. Find out more.

Great to chat to Dan Fumano @vancouversun.bsky.social about BC's property tax deferment program.

My take: "the B.C. model, where significant interest rate subsidies are accessed by those with above-average home values, does not seem to be an effective use of government funds.”

So sorry to hear that. At least they have your name on file now.

So glad you agreed to do this! I gave them your name and told them you were a rock star - and that you would give a more nuanced view of the issue than I could.

Putting a mailbox on this corner would decrease property values by tens of thousands of dollars.

The best way to lobby for retaining door-to-door mail delivery? Ask: where will the community mailboxes go? Rally the NIMFYS (not in my front yard)

Another article that misses the point: Canadians don't want to risk being detained at the border or having their phone searched or getting held in ice custody.

Need #EconSky help pls! Need US data on lawyer's wages, or top 1%, 2% or top 10% wages that goes back to the 1960s. Have FRED's 9th decile earnings data fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LEU02... but it only goes back to 2000, and I'm looking more at the very top of the distribution. Indiv not hshd.