Rob Gillezeau Profile picture
Assistant Professor @UVicEconomics & @UVicSPA. Economist, economic historian, and policymaker. Currently on sabbatical at @McMasterU. Views are my own.
Oct 13 5 tweets 1 min read
The voters deserve to see the BC Conservative platform as what they've promised so far simply isn't possible. They've got to figure out what they'll drop as you can't slash revenues by 10%, increase spending by billions of dollars, cut nothing, and balance the budget. #bcpoli It's easy enough to waive your hands and promise everything to everyone. However, when you govern, you have to make choices and the point of a costed, political platform is to tell voters what your genuine priorities are.
Aug 25, 2021 4 tweets 2 min read
It's so depressing that Ottawa had the BC "canary in the coal mine" experience on housing prices in the 2000s & just kind of looked the other way. As per @rcarrick's point, bringing prices down is going to be exponentially tougher politically than limiting price growth ex-ante. @rcarrick While the day-to-day polling is likely telling politicians of all stripes that large price reductions are a political loser, it's not that there aren't political costs for simply letting prices spiral like this and those costs can be long-standing for political parties.
Aug 24, 2021 7 tweets 2 min read
Now that we've got the housing platforms from the three major parties, bravo to the CPC policy team on putting together arguably the strongest net offer (even with the Liberals having the last mover advantage and re-upping many ideas advanced in other offers). #cdnpoli What really sets them apart? The policy offer is genuinely coherent in focusing its core measures at increasing supply and limiting demand. Demand boosting measures are generally helpful at election time, but the CPC has largely resisted the temptation of these policies.
Jul 8, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read
So we're back to 2000 on the debt front. That's fine given the scale of the economic challenge and we'll likely hit mid 90s debt levels in the recovery period, which is also fine.

What we will want is a credible, medium run post-recession plan to bring these levels back down. This is particularly important as Ottawa is the jurisdiction in a good fiscal position. Pre-COVID, the provinces were already in a fiscally unsustainable situation on net.
May 30, 2020 9 tweets 2 min read
Prior to COVID-19, I was supposed to be presenting some early stage research this weekend at the @ClioSociety conference on the the impact of police bargaining rights on killings of civilians by race. I don't normally discuss early stage research, but it feels appropriate today. We look at the roll-out of collective bargaining rights for police officers at the state level from the 1950s to the 1980s, using an event study framework and taking advantage of collective bargaining rights discontinuities for counties at state boundaries.
Jun 26, 2018 87 tweets 11 min read
We're back with day two of the #UnsettlingEconomics conference. A great lineup today: Krishna (SFU) & Ravi Pendakur (UO), Bryan Leonard (ASU), Jeffrey Burnette (Rochester), @MaggieECJones (UVic), Jasmin Thomas (FIN), @ProfPButton (Tulane) & Boyd Hunter (ANU) Krishna and Ravi are kicking things off with their work, "How Do Modern Agreements and Opt-In Legislation Affect
Household Income Inequality in Aboriginal Communities?", looking at how agreements shift income / income inequality.
Jun 25, 2018 25 tweets 5 min read
Thrilled to be kicking off the first #UnsettlingEconomics conference at @uvic today. I've never been in a space with this many folks committed to Indigenous economics. The agenda for those interested: uvic.ca/socialsciences… After introductory comments from @uvic's own Dr. Donna Feir, @Hesquiaht is kicking things off with her work in Indigenomics and the importance of claiming space and shifting narratives.