Progressive Economics Forum

I recently helped organize a homelessness study tour of New York City. Our group consisted of 30 Canadians from the non-profit sector, government, law enforcement and academia. We toured six sites over a three-day period. Here’s my ‘top 10’ overview of the tour: https://nickfalvo.ca/ten-things-to-know-about-homelessness-in-new-york-city/

The Progressive Economics Forum holds its annual meetings at the Canadian Economics Association (CEA) conference, which we thank for its financial support. In this year’s CEA, we are also celebrating PEF’s 25th anniversary. This year’s CEA conference will be held in person on June 2-3, 2023 in Winnipeg. A day of online only sessions will be held in advance of the conference on Tuesday May 30, 2023. The CEA Embrace Day with workshops will be held on Thursday June 1. As usual, PEF is...

I’m writing an open access textbook on homelessness, with a focus on high-income countries. Each chapter gets uploaded to my website as it is completed. The latest chapter, on health, is now available. A ‘top 10’ overview of the chapter can be found here:https://nickfalvo.ca/health-and-homelessness/ All information pertaining to the book can be found here:https://nickfalvo.ca/book/

[unable to retrieve full-text content]I’ve written a blog post about what Canada’s recent federal budget did for housing and homelessness (which wasn’t very much). Here’s my analysis: https://nickfalvo.ca/canadas-2023-federal-budget/

I’ve written a book chapter on subsidized rental housing and homelessness under Alberta’s first UCP government. My ‘top 5’ overview of the chapter is available here: https://nickfalvo.ca/subsidized-rental-housing-and-homelessness-under-albertas-first-ucp-government/

On 28 February 2023, the Danielle Smith government tabled Alberta’s 2023-2024 budget. Projecting a $2.4 billion surplus for the coming fiscal year, the budget announced some spending increases; but many are effectively cuts when one accounts for both inflation and population growth. Here are 10 things to know: The budget itself contains projections pertaining to inflation and population change. In the upcoming fiscal year, the budget projects 3.3% inflation (using...

I’m writing an open access textbook on homelessness. Chapter 4 has just been published. A ‘top 10’ overview of the chapter can be found here:https://nickfalvo.ca/emergency-facilities/ The full chapter is available here:https://nickfalvo.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Falvo-Chapter-4-Emergency-Facilities-30jan2023.pdf And all material related to the book can be found here:https://nickfalvo.ca/book/

The Bank of Canada is widely expected to increase its policy interest rate again this week, for the eighth time in the last 10 months. Media and financial market commentary on its decision has made numerous throwaway references to how Canada’s economy is still “running hot,” and that i why a rate hike is needed. This common claim is surprising, and not consistent with economic evidence. Canada’s economy is not “running hot” by any concrete measure. Here are six: 1. Final domestic...

Supermarket executives were up on Parliament Hill this week, appearing before the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food’s inquiry into food inflation grocery chain profits. They repeated the now-familiar argument that supermarkets have not caused food inflation, they have merely passed along higher input costs to their customers; their profit margins have been stable, it is claimed. Don’t believe them. Here are a few data points on the argument that the chains haven’t...

The Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada has just released a study comparing rents in co-op housing units to rents of similar private-sector market units in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto and Ottawa for the period 2006–2021. I played a small role in writing the report. A ‘top 10’ overview of the report can be found here: https://nickfalvo.ca/the-co-op-difference-comparing-co-op-and-market-rents-in-five-canadian-cities/ A French version of the ‘top 10’...