Department of Anthropology, Economics and Political Science
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Item Macroprudential policies and global banking(2024) Doriane, IntunganeThis paper examines the ability of macroprudential policies to dampen the pro-cyclicality of credit market cycles and to enhance the macroeconomic stability in countries open to cross-border banking activities. For the analysis, we develop a two-country dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with collateral constrained investors and global banks. The existence of cross-border lending activities is the source of the transmission of shocks across countries. The macroprudential policies analyzed are loan-to-value ratios and capital requirements, also known as the capital adequacy ratio, which are formulated as Taylor-type rules. Our results show that the effectiveness of capital requirement financial regulations is undermined if borrowers can increase credit from foreign banks originating from a country with more relaxed financial restrictions. When cross-border lending is permitted, national financial regulators can improve the financial stability of credit growth and management of credit by complementing the capital adequacy ratios with loan-to-value ratios.Item Rascals, pilfering, and purchases: the social and material entanglements of the early nineteenth century fur trade at Fraser Lake Post(2024) Prince, PaulRecords related to Fraser Lake Post in New Caledonia and an assemblage of artifacts from a nearby Dakelh pithouse are used to query the early engagements of Indigenous people with fur traders and their materials. The central concern is with what fur traders regarded as theft, which they considered an affront and threat to the norms of commerce and presumed was motivated by a desire for material gain and flaws in personal character. The trader’s rhetoric brings into focus contrasting views of relationship building and the role of material culture in the process. When the exchange relationships are contextualized within sets of entanglements between individuals and social groups at various scales, discordant views of proper exchange and the value of material things can be better understood as resulting from differing ethos of reciprocity, with the material objects as more representative of relationships than technological changes and reliance.Item Economics of Gaza(2025) Jahangir, JunaidThe objective in this paper is to highlight the economics of Gaza by delineating the topics of structural occupation and energy conflict, free markets versus free market of ideas, economics of extremism, the economics of crime and discrimination, cultural stereotypes and crowding out of morality. This is achieved through an interdisciplinary approach by drawing literature from the nexus between economics and theology, law, and philosophy.Item Bridging multiple meanings of 'impact' across and beyond the academy(2025) Hall, Robyn; Auer, Meagan; McBeth, Renee; Green, Kassidy"Impact" is central to contemporary research, yet its meaning varies widely across different stakeholders engaged in community-university research partnerships. This session will create a collaborative space for community members, academics, and administrators to explore and debate definitions of impact and how it is achieved. Informed by their research and professional practice, presenters will share diverse perspectives on what impact means to them in their respective roles as a community partner, community engagement facilitator, scholarly communications librarian, and community-based researcher. Participants will then be invited to share their own perspectives and experiences, reflecting on the tensions and synergies that arise from the process of striving to achieve meaningful outcomes when participating in community-based research. Key topics will include the challenges of balancing community priorities with academic goals, navigating differing views of impact among unique stakeholders, strategies for defining and pursuing impactful results, and practical strategies for communicating impact to different audiences. By sharing experiences, and considering multiple perspectives, this session will help shape a more nuanced and relational approach to defining and achieving research outcomes in community-engaged and academic contexts.Item Book review of Beker, V. A.: Economic theory for the real world(2025) Jahangir, JunaidIn the aftermath of the financial crisis, there has been a renewed push by student groups towards pluralism and real-world content in economics (Earle et al. 2017, Fischer et al. 2018). In this regard, several books of authors like Komlos (2023), McGuiness (2023), and Schneider (2024) have been recently published with words like ‘pluralism’ or ‘real-world’ in the title. However, not all such books are textbooks to answer the call for change in economics pedagogy, even though they address textbook content. The textbook of McGuiness (2023), which is like a supplementary reader to go with economics textbooks, has a neoclassical bent. Similarly, the work of Beker (2024), although heterodox, is not promoted as a textbook with exercises and resources. However, I was intrigued by his book as I used Komlos (2023) in my Humanistic Economics class and Komlos provided the foreword. Beker’s book reflects both seminal and recent contributions in heterodox economics and in a manner accessible to interested instructors, students, and lifelong learners. Moreover, while Komlos (2023) and Schneider (2024) are promoted as textbooks, Beker (2024) would be a supplementary reader that focuses on select topics.Item Ancient Plasmodium genomes shed light on the history of human malaria(2024) Michel, Megan; Skourtanioti, Eirini; Pierini, Federica; Guevara, Evelyn K.; Moetsch, Angela; Kocher, Arthur; Barquera, Rodrigo; Bianco, Raffaela A.; Carlhoff, Selina; Bove, Lorenza Coppola; Freilich, Suzanne; Giffin, Karen; Hermes, Taylor; Hiß, Alina; Knolle, Florian; Nelson, Elizabeth A.; Neumann, Gunnar U.; Papac, Luka; Penske, Sandra; Rohrlach, Adam B.; Salem, Nada; Semerau, Lena; Villalba-Mouco, Vanessa; Abadie, Isabelle; Aldenderfer, Mark; Beckett, Jessica F.; Brown, Matthew; Campus, Franco G. R.; Chenghwa, Tsang; Cruz Berrocal, María; Damašek, Ladislav; Carlson, Kellie Sara Duffett; Durand, Raphaël; Ernée, Michal; Fântăneanu, Cristinel; Frenzel, Hannah; García Atiénzar, Gabriel; Guillén, Sonia; Hsieh, Ellen; Karwowski, Maciej; Kelvin, David; Kelvin, Nikki; Khokhlov, Alexander; Kinaston, Rebecca L.; Korolev, Arkadii; Krettek, Kim-Louise; Küßner, Mario; Lai, Luca; Look, Cory; Majander, Kerttu; Mandl, Kirsten; Mazzarello, Vittorio; McCormick, Michael; de Miguel Ibáñez, Patxuka; Murphy, Reg; Németh, Rita E.; Nordqvist, Kerkko; Novotny, Friederike; Obenaus, Martin; Olmo-Enciso, Lauro; Onkamo, Päivi; Orschiedt, Jörg; Patrushev, Valerii; Peltola, Sanni; Romero, Alejandro; Rubino, Salvatore; Sajantila, Antti; Salazar-García, Domingo C.; Serrano, Elena; Shaydullaev, Shapulat; Sias, Emanuela; Šlaus, Mario; Stančo, Ladislav; Swanston, Treena; Teschler-Nicola, Maria; Valentin, Frederique; Van de Vijver, Katrien; Varney, Tamara L.; Vigil-Escalera Guirado, Alfonso; Waters, Christopher K.; Weiss-Krejci, Estella; Winter, Eduard; Lamnidis, Thiseas C.; Prüfer, Kay; Nägele, Kathrin; Spyrou, Maria; Schiffels, Stephan; Stockhammer, Philipp W.; Haak, Wolfgang; Posth, Cosimo; Warinner, Christina; Bos, Kirsten I.; Herbig, Alexander; Krause, JohannesMalaria-causing protozoa of the genus Plasmodium have exerted one of the strongest selective pressures on the human genome, and resistance alleles provide biomolecular footprints that outline the historical reach of these species. Nevertheless, debate persists over when and how malaria parasites emerged as human pathogens and spread around the globe. To address these questions, we generated high-coverage ancient mitochondrial and nuclear genome-wide data from P. falciparum, P. vivax and P. malariae from 16 countries spanning around 5,500 years of human history. We identified P. vivax and P. falciparum across geographically disparate regions of Eurasia from as early as the fourth and first millennia bce, respectively; for P. vivax, this evidence pre-dates textual references by several millennia. Genomic analysis supports distinct disease histories for P. falciparum and P. vivax in the Americas: similarities between now-eliminated European and peri-contact South American strains indicate that European colonizers were the source of American P. vivax, whereas the trans-Atlantic slave trade probably introduced P. falciparum into the Americas. Our data underscore the role of cross-cultural contacts in the dissemination of malaria, laying the biomolecular foundation for future palaeo-epidemiological research into the impact of Plasmodium parasites on human history. Finally, our unexpected discovery of P. falciparum in the high-altitude Himalayas provides a rare case study in which individual mobility can be inferred from infection status, adding to our knowledge of cross-cultural connectivity in the region nearly three millennia ago.Item Middle-class youth fleeing Nigeria: rethinking African survival migration through the Japa phenomenon(2024) Liu, Jing JingMigration for survival is commonly associated with refugees and asylum seekers who flee persecution, wars, and natural calamities. Yet, in Nigeria, university-educated, gainfully employed middle-class youth insist that leaving is a matter of survival and not a choice. This distinction is signalled by japa, a recently popularised term for 'to run' or 'to flee'. Young Nigerians view migration as an escape from intolerable domestic conditions - prolonged university strikes, overturned development progress, and unprecedented currency inflation. In practice, japa follows formal procedures but favours quick departures. But by framing migration as fleeing, youth emphasise their refusal to cope. Foremost, they emphasise urgent respite over rationalised projects of social reproduction or status maintenance. Scholars, however, tend to overlook emotional or existential motives for voluntary migration and essentialise survival drives to forced migration. Drawing on 21 interviews with Nigerian youths, this paper shows a need to rethink survival migration, particularly how we value destinations compared to departures, conflate urgent desires with immediate exits, and privilege social functions over individual sentiments. By analysing youth's interpretations of what survival means, we enrich our understanding of African migration beyond the binary of elite strategies for social reproduction or fateful journeys of forced migration.Item Machine learning-based prognostic model for in-hospital mortality of aortic dissection: insights from an intensive care medicine perspective(2024) Lei, Jiahao; Zhang, Zhuojing; Li, Yixuan; Wu, Zhaoyu; Pu, Hongji; Xu, Zhijue; Yang, Xinrui; Hu, Jiateng; Liu, Guang; Qiu, Peng; Chen, Tao; Lu, XinwuAortic dissection (AD) is a severe emergency with high morbidity and mortality, necessitating strict monitoring and management. This retrospective study aimed to identify prognostic factors and establish predictive models for in-hospital mortality among AD patients in the intensive care unit (ICU).Item A functional data approach for continuous-time analysis subject to modeling discrepancy under infill asymptotics(2023) Chen, Tao; Li, Yixuan; Tian, RenfangParametric continuous-time analysis often entails derivations of continuous-time models from predefined discrete formulations. However, undetermined convergence rates of frequency-dependent parameters can result in ill-defined continuous-time limits, leading to modeling discrepancy, which impairs the reliability of fitting and forecasting. To circumvent this issue, we propose a simple solution based on functional data analysis (FDA) and truncated Taylor series expansions. It is demonstrated through a simulation study that our proposed method is superior—compared with misspecified parametric methods—in fitting and forecasting continuous-time stochastic processes, while the parametric method slightly dominates under correct specification, with comparable forecast errors to the FDA-based method. Due to its generally consistent and more robust performance against possible misspecification, the proposed FDA-based method is recommended in the presence of modeling discrepancy. Further, we apply the proposed method to predict the future return of the S&P 500, utilizing observations extracted from a latent continuous-time process, and show the practical efficacy of our approach in accurately discerning the underlying dynamics.Item Book review: The coming wave: technology, power, and the twenty-first century’s greatest dilemma(2024) Jahangir, JunaidSuleyman is the Co-Founder of the world’s leading AI companies including Inflection AI, and DeepMind, acquired by Google. He was behind the AI programs AlphaZero and AlphaGo Zero. It is therefore not surprising that Suleyman and Bhaskar (2023) has received attention from a wide array of prominent thinkers, academics, entrepreneurs, authors, and leaders like Yuval Noah Harari, Nouriel Roubini, Andrew McAfee, Daniel Kahneman, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Al Gore, and Bill Gates. What follows is a summary of the main themes raised by this book and how the ideas critically engage with economists studying automation, and with thinkers like Acemoglu and Restrepo (2019), Susskind(2020), Acemoglu (2021) and Qureshi and Woo (2022). Suleyman and Bhaskar (2023) argue that the coming technological wave is based on AI and synthetic biology, which will become cheaper and widely accessible (p.7, p.9). They also express concern of the risks of “AI-powered cyberattacks, automated wars, engineered pandemics”, and the ‘existential threat to nation states’ (p.10). The response to such catastrophic outcomes could be authoritarian surveillance (dystopia) or bans and boycotts of technology (stagnation), both of which are unacceptable (p.10, p.206). The authors argue that we need to focus not just on the positive spillovers of technology but also on its ‘unintended consequences’ (p.36). Thus, they argue for containment, i.e., the capacity to control, limit, or shut down technology; and to change the research direction, or ‘deny access to harmful actors’ (pp.36–37). Overall, they argue that technology should be ‘democratically decided’ and its benefits ‘widely distributed’ (p.285).Item On Trump’s tariffs the response to power is countervailing power(2025) Jahangir, JunaidTrump’s re-election cements right-wing populism, driven by worker resentment over globalisation. Standard free trade theory ignores power asymmetries; retaliatory tariffs act as countervailing power.Item Lost in translation(2023) Sidorova, Evgeniia; Ferguson, JenanneThe meaningful incorporation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into large-scale northern infrastructure construction can improve sustainability practices and broaden our conceptual understanding of nature (Sidorova and Virla 2022). TEK refers to systems of collective knowledge production, established gradually by members of Indigenous and local communities and transferred through generations (Agrawala et al. 2010). While the ‘traditional’ part of the term TEK can be problematic, as the word may connote something old and static, we stress here that TEK is a dynamic, living tradition adaptable to new conditions and knowledge. Another key element in infrastructure projects is the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). EIAs are used to evaluate the likelihood of negative environmental impacts before deciding whether to move forward with a project. They also attempt to develop and implement strategies to avoid or reduce those negative impacts as conditions of approval for the project (Agrawala et al. 2010). This paper examines a particular tension that arises between TEK and EIA.Item Adrift without an anchor: federal fiscal policy and Canada’s long-term debt ratio(2024) Dahlby, Bev; Ferede, ErgeteThis research bulletin tests whether the federal government’s fiscal policies are consistent with its fiscal anchor—a declining debt ratio over the next 25 years—using a Monte Carlo simulation model with random shocks to the growth rate similar to those experienced by the Canadian economy over the last 40 years. Since the pandemic, the federal government has postponed reducing its deficit because it has continually revised program spending upward. The deterioration in the federal fiscal position over the past year, with larger projected deficits, interest rates, and debt levels, has increased the likelihood of higher debt ratios in the future. Our model indicates that there is a 44% chance that the net debt ratio will be higher in 2036/37 and a 59% chance that it will be higher in 2046/47. We conclude that the federal government’s claim that its fiscal policies will lead to a downward trend in its debt ratio is not credible because it ignores the likelihood that future recessions will result in larger budget deficits.Item How have Canadian federal governments responded to budget deficits?(2024) Ferede, Ergete; Dahlby, BevThe objective of this study is to investigate, based on econometric modelling using timeseries data from 1868 to 2021, how Canadian federal governments have responded to budget deficits. The fiscal responses of Canadian federal governments to budget deficits have depended on the ratio of net debt to GDP and the ratio of interest payments to revenue. When the federal government has a debt-to-GDP ratio exceeding 37.1% or ratios of interest payments to revenue above 12.5%, they have responded to budget deficits by reducing program spending and raising revenue. When debt or interest-cost ratios have been below these thresholds, governments have postponed fiscal adjustments. According to this classification, Canada is currently in a fiscal environment with a high debt ratio and low interest-cost ratio. The Liberal government has postponed deficit reduction in its recent budgets, which indicates that its fiscal policies are based more on the ratio of interest payments to revenue than the ratio of net debt to GDP. Postponing fiscal adjustments and incurring greater deficits results in higher interest payments. In the future, the fiscal adjustment will require deeper cuts in program spending and larger increases in tax rates that will have substantial economic and social costs. We find that a short-term increase in program spending is only partially offset by future spending restraint and about 30% of the adjustment involves increases in future taxes. This is consistent with the spend and tax hypothesis—that higher program spending ultimately leads to higher tax burdens. We also find that a short-term increase in revenues is followed by an increase in the present value of future program spending. This is consistent with the tax-and-spend hypothesis—that is, revenue increases lead to increases in program spending.Item Seen but not partisan: changing expectations of public servants in Westminster systems(2024) Boyd, BrendanMuch has been written about the changing role of unelected public servants in Westminster systems of government and their relationship with elected officials and the public. However, there are no studies comparing how these three groups perceive the role, and what they expect from public servants. This article provides the findings from three surveys of public servants, politicians and the public in Canada to assess how they view the role of the public servant and how this compares to different conceptions in the academic literature. The study finds that all three groups support the principles of ministerial responsibility and non-partisanship but do not believe that public servants should be anonymous and free from public scrutiny. This raises the question of whether some aspects of the traditional public servant role can be altered while keeping others in place and suggests that advocates for altering the role of the public servant will be most successful if they focus on certain aspects while preserving others.Item Economic pluralism and the Disney princesses(2024) Jahangir, JunaidThe objective of this paper is to present a pluralist perspective on teaching economic principles through the three Disney stories of Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and The Princess and the Frog. Introducing both neoclassical and heterodox perspectives through Disney animations catches student interest and improves student understanding in a way that traditional pedagogies do not. This is because it makes economic content more relatable to students and thus improves their retention of economic ideas. The emphasis in this paper is on complementing the teaching of standard economics principles with heterodox ideas and concepts including a focus on relative income, exploitation of individuals with lower cognitive abilities, shaping of consumer preferences through predatory advertisements, institutional racism and the limits of markets in addressing discrimination.Item Review of Michael McBride’s An economic approach to religion, World Scientific Publishing 2022, 420 pp.(2024) Jahangir, JunaidIn 2021, I was looking for resources to teach the Economics of Religion, a new elective undergraduate course that I was developing for my department. I was unable to find a textbook at the undergraduate level, so I ended up drawing mostly from journal articles to design my course (Jahangir 2022). However, I recently came across the textbook by McBride and I found it to be an excellent resource. In what follows I offer a synoptic and critical review.Item The works of Ha-Joon Chang(2024) Jahangir, JunaidOver the last 20 years, Ha-Joon Chang has weaved a consistent narrative in popular books from Kicking Away the Ladder in 2002 to Edible Economics in 2022. His body of work challenges the narrative in mainstream textbook economics. While his focus is on free trade, foreign direct investment, and neoliberalism, he offers interesting insight on the role of culture in economic development and why poor people in poor countries are poor. His narrative is very much welcome in a time with calls for economic pluralism in the pedagogy of economics.Item Corporate power and the illusion of competition(2024) Jahangir, JunaidA book by Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar is the latest from McGill Max Bell Lectures. It has received attention from a wide array of citizens including economists, government officials and independent business representatives, all of whom share concerns on stifled competition and innovation in Canada. Hearn and Bednar express concerns on corporate power and concentration by alluding to “three major telecommunications companies, five grocers, a few big banks, [and] two major airlines.” This phenomenon is problematic not just because of rising grocery bills and weak bargaining position for workers, but also because of concerns about long-term economic growth, less research and development (R&D) and low productivity. What this means is that citizens both on the left and the right can stand united against such market concentration, given their concerns about worker rights and economic growth respectively.Item Teaching the economics of automation(2024) Jahangir, JunaidThe purpose in this paper is to create a teaching module on the economics of automation. Avoiding technicalities but focusing on critical thinking, key ideas in the economics of automation are highlighted,and class discussion material is provided based on popular books published in the 2020s. Differing perspectives from these books allow for rich class discussions on topics including the risks of automation, the power of Big Tech, and policy responses for the digital economy. For ECON 101 students, Disney animation clips are provided as hooks to engage in analogy-based understanding of issues in automation. Likewise, other video clips are used to discuss the risks and dangers of automation related to jobs, scams, democracy, and political polarization. Overall, this teaching module highlights key ideas in the economics of automation, incorporates ideas from recently published books, and complements the lecture with videos to retain student interest