Progressive Economics Forum

There are encouraging signs that Canada’s economy and labour market are improving after a period of stagnation brought about by the Bank of Canada’s aggressive interest rate hikes in 2022 and 2023. Newly released data for the third quarter of 2024 (July-September) shows the economy has continued to grow, albeit slowly. Consumer spending was the brightest light in the third quarter data: growing at an annualized rate of 3.5% (in real, inflation-adjusted terms), and constituting the...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]I’ve written a book chapter on the COVID-19 pandemic and homelessness planning in Canada. Here’s a ‘top 10’ overview:https://nickfalvo.ca/covid-19-and-homelessness-planning-in-canada/

Eric Latimer and I recently wrote a report for the Province of Québec about demand-side housing assistance for low-income households. A ‘top 10’ overview of the report can be found here: https://nickfalvo.ca/demand-side-housing-assistance-for-low-income-households-in-quebec/

[unable to retrieve full-text content]I recently delivered my Homelessness 101 workshop in both English and French. All course material is available free of charge at this link: https://nickfalvo.ca/courses/

Ali Jadidzadeh and I recently undertook some statistical analysis on behalf of Infrastructure Canada (Canada’s lead federal government agency on homelessness). Here’s a ‘top 10’ overview of our analysis: https://nickfalvo.ca/economic-and-social-factors-associated-with-the-use-of-homeless-shelters/

I’m the lead author of a recent report, commissioned by Vibrant Communities Calgary, looking at factors associated with social disorder on public transit (including social disorder involving people experiencing homelessness). Here’s a ‘top 10’ overview of the report: https://nickfalvo.ca/report-finds-insufficient-daytime-options-for-people-experiencing-homelessness/

[unable to retrieve full-text content]I’ve just released Chapter 9 of my open access textbook. This chapter focuses on youth homelessness. A ‘top 10’ overview of the chapter can be found here: https://nickfalvo.ca/youth-homelessness/

In a previous post, I analyzed what Canadian corporations are doing with their profits. I described how across almost every sector of the economy, corporations are distributing more of their profits to owners than they are investing. In this brief post, I’m going to describe what Canadian corporations are doing with funds acquired through issuance of debt and equity securities. I will be using StatCan data on corporate issuances of long-term debt and equity. Unfortunately, the data...

I recently led a research study comparing spending by large Canadian municipalities on homeless-related services and affordable housing. Here’s a ‘top 10’ overview of the study:https://nickfalvo.ca/comparating-municipal-spending-on-housing-and-homelessness-in-canadas-major-cities/

The new UK government is signaling some reasonably ambitious reforms on the labour policy front (certainly more ambitious than most were expecting, given the Labour Party’s austere pre-election rhetoric and platform). They call the vision a New Deal for Working People . The policy framework is called A Plan to Make Work Pay. Broad features of the plan were mapped out in the King’s Speech (akin to our Speech from the Throne in Canada) delivered yesterday, and include: Strengthening...