FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Economics

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Population Economics

Population Economics

A survey of topics in population economics, including the economic consequences of population aging, the economic theory of fertility, and the interrelations between economic and demographic phenomena generally.

Researchers

Michael Grignon 

Graduate Chair of the Department of Health, Aging & Society | Associate Scientist of Institut de Recherche et Documentation en Èconomie de la Santé | Editor-in-chief of Health Reform Observer – Observatoire des Réformes de Santé | Professor

Experts Profile

Arthur Sweetman 

Ontario Research Chair in Health Human Resources | Professor

 

My research in population economics focuses on economic issues related to immigration, particularly in the Canadian context. As a major immigrant receiving nation, Canada has a highly structured immigration system that seeks to select and settle new Canadians successfully. This is a policy area that has been very receptive to economic research as one input into the policymaking process.

Experts Profile

Akwugo Balogun 

PhD Student

James Stutely 

PhD Student

Daniel Tingskou 

PhD Student

 

My research interests include Health Economics, Population Economics and Population Aging.

 

One of my dissertation chapters, coauthored with my supervisor Michel Grignon, estimates how the interprovincial migration of physicians in Canada over the past 30 years has been influenced by provincial incorporation laws. Between the years 1990-2019 several provinces enacted legislation which allowed physicians to establish their practices as privately owned corporations, while others had allowed for this prior to 1990. Through a privately owned corporation there is significant potential to increase after tax household income via income splitting and dividend sprinkling with family members. Given the large financial incentives associated with incorporation we found a significant increase in the migration of doctors to provinces that recently allowed for income splitting, compared to when they did not.

 

Another one of my projects focuses on the political economy of Covid-19 related public health measures. The costs and benefits of such policies are unequally distributed across the population, with large differences existing between age groups, and to smaller extent gender. Using lifetables of the Canadian population and statistics on Covid-19 case fatality rates, unemployment and reductions in consumption I estimate the Net Present Value (NPV) of Covid-19 related government lockdowns at the individual level for each age group between 18 – 100. Despite the large economic costs of lockdowns, for the majority of voting age Canadians the NPV of such lockdowns is positive.