This paper examines health-care spending projections when the interaction between end-of-life care expenditures and declining mortality is taken explicitly into account. Based on Quebec's historical public health-care spending data and mortality rates for 20 age groups over the period 1998 to...

Inflation definitely has costs, but they remain difficult to quantify for rates below 10-15 per cent. Aiming for a low rate of inflation, as Canada has done in the last 20 years, carries with it various risks, such as debt deflation, reduced flexibility of interest rates, and downwardly rigid...

The Inflation-Control Agreement between the Government and the Bank of Canada is reviewed and renewed every five years. In this paper, I propose that the upcoming 2016 agreement increase the inflation target by 2 percentage points, from the current 2% to 4%. I first note that the room to...

In this rejoinder the key role played by high interest rates in the Canadian economic and fiscal crisis of 1990-96 is reaffirmed. I argue that (i) important econometric biases could have led many to underestimate the effects of high interest rates on output; (ii) it is imprudent to conduct...