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Chris Neill 🐧

@chrisneill.bsky.social
1.8K followers 797 following 2.9K posts

Associate Professor, Economics (education, labour, public econ, policy) at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, 🇨🇦. Originally from 🇦🇺, I tend to prefer rivers that I can swim away in, rather than skate away on.

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Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
Alex Usher @alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 1h
In which I lay out why Minister Quinn's decision to suspend all private institutions from OSAP is a desperate effort to distract attention from the fact that it is now clear that he lied about the reasons for the February OSAP cuts (and he knew he was lying). Those cuts need to be reversed. Now.
higheredstrategy.com
The Contemptible OSAP Cover-Up | HESA
If you have been paying only casual attention to the Ontario Student Assistance file over the past few months and seen headlines like this one from July, where the province suspended several private c...
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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 2h
We went out for supper last night and our favorite local restaurant had an interesting addition on its fall menu. (I went with the pork chop--it was pretty good.)
A local restaurant switching from American to Australian beef because American beef is too expensive.
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 5h
Detailed study of the dissemination of the spinach decimal point error, which was repeated thousands of times, convincing millions that spinach was a great source of iron compared to other veggies, all faked but caused by citing citations of citations without checking.
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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 11h
New figures in - Australians still hate Trump's USA, but like Canada live.thepoint.com.au
Charts showing since 20204 Australian travel to Canada is up nearly 20% while it is down 5% to the USA
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pmamtraveller.bsky.social @pmamtraveller.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Living Alone, Paco Yao
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nzjanette @nzjanette.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Spring.
Pink kanuka flowers glowing in the bright sunlight of a gorgeous Wellington day.
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Per Engzell @pengzell.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
LMU Munich’s International Stone Center is hiring a Junior Research Group Leader in Wealth Inequality Research. Open to scholars in sociology, economics and related fields.
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Stephanie Wang @sweiwang.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
starting a thread on There Was A Change in The Measure (h/t @kjhealy.co) please send your best examples bsky.app/profile/kjhe...
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ABC News Australia @news.abc.net.au · 12/10/2026
AI boom could widen income inequality, with only a handful of 'toll collectors' benefiting
abc.net.au
AI boom could widen income inequality, Labor MP warns
AI use in the workforce could see the wage gap shrink, while worsening inequality.
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
"Am I missing something here?" I dunno, maybe missing her writing, which was the reason she won the Nobel Prize? But that would take actual effort to search out and read - and maybe even think about - rather than take a quick look at a few videos that popped up on his timeline.
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Personally I think it is worth it even if only to prevent the excruciatingly painful rash.
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Seriously impressive.
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 17/09/2023
In my mind, I picture wombats as badger or possum sized, but they're ... um ... not.
Patrick the Wombat, on the occasion of his 31st birthday.

Source: https://redtreetimes.com/2020/01/14/the-wombat/
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Tucker Drake @tparkpodcast.com · 29/02/2024
Obligatory The Oatmeal comic. theoatmeal.com/comics/wombats
theoatmeal.com
We need to have a conversation about wombats - The Oatmeal
This comic is about a lot of things, but mostly it is about butts.
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Julia Coronado @jc-econ.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“Scott doesn’t really participate in philanthropy for the recognition, and maybe that’s the point” Imagine a world… fortune.com/article/mack...
fortune.com
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year | Fortune
MacKenzie Scott donated $7 billion in 2025—a third of all U.S. megagifts—bringing her five-year total to $26.2 billion, even as she stays out of the spotlight.
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Debbie T Knits 🧶 @debbietknits.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
You all know I detest circulars but I suppose they have their uses! 🧶 #knit
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
See also: bsky.app/profile/oreo...
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Mitjili Napurrula is an Indigenous Australian painter from the Northern Territories #WomensArt
Colourful painting with stylised repeated leaf morifs, dots and orher significant forms on a white background
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Decent attempted summary, and clearly points to both the stupidity and the awfulness, but the stuff left out could fill a whole 'nother sentence at least.
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 11/10/2026
On Trump's Diesel Deal. Writing this as catharsis because I live in a rental and thus punching walls is off the table.
dmitryopines.substack.com
Trump’s Diesel Deal
Writing So I Don’t Scream.
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Canadian History Ehx @cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
On this day in 1929, Raymond Moriyama was born in Vancouver. One of Canada's most acclaimed architects, his buildings include the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, the Ontario Science Centre, the Bata Shoe Museum, and the Canadian War Museum. 📸 Moriyama & Teshima Architect
Raymond Moriyama wearing a dark suit and smiling gently. He is seated with abstract artwork and a framed picture of a modern building in the background.
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Panama tightens the net around its shark and ray trade. Since January 2026, Panama has banned exports of any CITES-listed shark or ray species, while a bill currently before the legislature would extend that to a nationwide ban on targeted shark and ray fishing. buff.ly/TH1b2su #ShareGoodNewsToo
buff.ly
Panama looks to science, fishers, and the law to protect its sharks and rays
PUERTO CAIMITO, Panama — It’s a late April morning and the Tabor, an industrial fishing boat, is sailing around Chepillo Island in Panama Bay. Under the eyes of the crew, Yehudi Rodríguez, a marine…
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Stephen Wild @stephenjwild.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
If you want to see a really good example of the big data paradox in action: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Unrepresentative big surveys significantly overestimated US vaccine uptake - Nature
An analysis of three surveys of COVID-19 vaccine behaviour shows that larger surveys overconfidently overestimated vaccine uptake, a demonstration of how larger sample sizes can paradoxicall...
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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
discovered this show called Blue Murder Motel and it has so much that I value in a procedural- a hotel, NZ, super implausible plots, detectives who investigate with full public cooperation with zero jurisdiction and the deepest REMEMBER THAT GUY FROM WHEN HE WAS IN XENA roster I've ever seen
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Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
One for our “data collection process is model” slides
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Absolutely evil. And just one among many evil actions of an administration whose leader 35% of Americans approve of.
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
A Mt Isa Surf Club would definitely be worth a visit. Maybe one day.
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Kent Fellows @gkfellows.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
From an Econ perspective, the whole point of intellectual property law is to protect the incentives to invest in intellectual property be ensuring those who create new art and new innovations can benefit from it. An underappreciated danger is that AI erodes this protection.
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Yes exactly this. And also separated off-road areas for parked vehicles/bikes/people to hang out in.
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
It has to be truly upsetting to satirical writers that no matter how over the top they take it, they get overtaken a short time later. I guess we haven't quite surpassed the full Swift, but at this point I would not bet the US doesn't go there.
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Justin Ling @justinling.ca · 10/10/2026
My column this week is all about the fiscal time bomb awaiting governments in the AI age — "the twilight of labour," as some economists are calling. If we don't tax AI companies now, it's going to be much harder to do it later. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
thestar.com
Justin Ling: As we stare down big changes to the labour force, there’s one advantage the U.S. has that Canada doesn’t
If we manage to continue as a civilization — something AI executives note is only 90 per cent likely — we’re going to see huge economic shifts.
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Stephen Nuñez @socio-steve.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Horrific thread
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Alex Usher @alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Need-Based Student Assistance, by type and province, as a percentge of GDP, 2024-25 (re-posting because of errors for the AB and SK numbers. sorry)
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Oh hey, have you also been reading local council candidates' pitches?
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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Kemi Badenoch wants to exempt the family home from inheritance tax. But that creates a perverse incentive for elderly people to *upsize* to save IHT. That could double the cost of the policy, and push £100bn+ from savings into housing. A 🧵 on bad tax cuts.
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Economists for Team Orca: www.mstaylor1.org/pagesummary
mstaylor1.org
Noise Pollution and Marine Mammals — M. Scott Taylor
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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Really cool graph from @ernietedeschi.bsky.social on the bad site. Gen Z is the wealthiest generation in history controlling for age. Millennials are now finally wealthier than previous generations were at the same age. We are a very rich country. The problem always is bad distribution of wealth.
US Median Real Wealth per Adult by Age & Generation
Constant 2025 dollars

In General each generation is slightly wealthier than the previous ones eventually, but only slightly.
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John Quiggin @johnquiggin.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Australia has long punched above its weight in the world of dodgy finance (Alan Bond, Lex Greensill) and it looks like we may now be ringing the bell for the data centre bubble, with the failed float of Firmus.
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Canadian History Ehx @cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
A Lovecraftian horror/thriller series set in Newfoundland? Yes please!
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Honestly, just ban speakers on mobile phones - I understand we thought it was a good idea at the time but we now realise it is just not not compatible with human nature. Headphones exist and are not horribly expensive.
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854
Taxing Entrepreneurial Wealth: Evidence from
Norway, 2021-2025
Marius A. K. Ring
WORKING PAPER 35854|
DOl 10.3386/w35854
ISSUE DATE October 2026
Whether imposing higher taxes on business owners adversely affects business activity by constraining investment and inducing capitalist flight is a central question in the ongoing debate on how to tax the ultra wealthy. To shed new light, I exploit a series of related Norwegian reforms during 2021-2024 that increased dividend tax rates, removed migration-related capital gains tax loopholes, and nearly doubled the effective marginal tax rate on business wealth. These reforms spurred international debate and, allegedly, an "exodus" of Norwegian billionaires (Financial Times,
2023). While I document clear effects on migration, these responses are concentrated among the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution and mostly confined to 2022 and 2023. My results indicate that at most 100 individuals left due to the reforms. I find no evidence of significant outmigration or reduced inflows of startup founders or inventors. I estimate that absent any outmigration, wealth tax revenues would have increased by 75% from 2021 to 2024. Reform-driven outmigration lowers the revenue gain to 71.5%. My findings further show that outmigrating owners' firms remain economically active and do not reduce investment. In a broader set of analyses, I examine whether business outcomes are affected, regardless of whether owners outmigrate, since firms may reduce investment both due to liquidity constraints or distortions to owners' savings decisions. I compare firms owned by Norwegian individuals subject to the wealth tax with firms owned by foreigners and other tax-exempt entities. By merging historical ownership data from Orbis with the Norwegian shareholder register, I perform these analyses on both Norwegian and foreign-domiciled firms.
Across settings, I find no evidence that Norwegian-owned firms pay out more dividends or invest less after the reforms,…
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Look they went up 50%, but they are going to come down 150%, so it's a win.
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Micah @rincewind.run · 08/10/2026
the reason “AI will create so much abundance we will have a utopian society” rhetoric falls so flat is that the people building it will never, ever share their bounty unless it is taken from them and we all know it
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Interesting new work from Erwin Diewert and co on the role of specific industries falling being behind achieved frontier efficiency levels for overall productivity growth.
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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I actually think the opposite - Goodwin shows that by keeping us safely cloistered away academia is doing the rest of the world a great service.
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NBER @nber.org · 08/10/2026
Denmark quasi-randomly assigned 12,000+ refugee children across towns. Those placed where social mobility is higher earned more as adults and had fewer convictions and teen births, from Daysal, Doyle Jr., Samandari, Simonsen, and Trandafir www.nber.org/papers/w35853
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NBER @nber.org · 09/10/2026
Norway's controversial 2021–2024 reforms nearly doubled the tax on business wealth. Firms of affected owners did not invest less, and outmigration was limited to the very top, from Marius A. K. Ring www.nber.org/papers/w35854
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Cheryl in Nova Scotia 🇨🇦🍁🍁 @minibubbly.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Just don’t go!! Global Affairs #Canada says the number of arrest and detention cases involving Canadians citizens has jumped 60%. The department’s annual report on consular cases, published today, tracks an increase in arrests between /1 thread www.ctvnews.ca/canada/artic...
ctvnews.ca
Canada records 60 per cent spike in arrests, detentions of Canadians in United States
Global Affairs Canada says the number of arrest and detention cases involving Canadians citizens has jumped 60 per cent.
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Joel Wood 🇨🇦 @joelwwood.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Finances of the Nation is such a tremendous resource for teaching Public Finance. Today I am lecturing about Public Debt and it easily produced figures to tell the story about Canada's federal fiscal situation in the 1990s. #EconSky #TeachEcon #CdnEcon financesofthenation.ca/debt/
financesofthenation.ca
Government Debt – Finances of the Nation
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Chris Neill 🐧 @chrisneill.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
What is even the point of caring about having a common language with words that mean something? Just really why.
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