Policy Options

Many countries face solvency crises in their public pension plans. Contributions are too low or benefits are too high to sustain the programs as they are. But in Canada,...

Tom Mulcair’s article ”Building a Balanced, Sustainable Energy Future” in the May 2013 issue of Policy Options, where he identifies “science-based” environmental policies as key to NDP priorities is,...

A new Indo-Pacific strategic arc is beginning to emerge, connecting the Indian and Pacific Oceans through Southeast Asia. This new strategic construct is being forged by a range of...

I am from Wessab, a remote mountain village in Yemen, about nine hours’ drive from my country’s capital, Sana’a. Most of the world has never heard of Wessab. But...

The main problem is not drones, but that the Bush Administration grossly mismanaged its response to 9/11. Instead of acting firmly and surgically against Al Qaeda, it squandered global...

April 28, 2013 | Washington, DC For more than 15 years now, I’ve been traveling to the developing world on behalf of the Foundation, and there is one scene...

We all know how hard it is for us to modify our behaviour, whether it is to quit smoking or hit the gym more. Yet while most of us...

Not a day goes by in Washington that appeals to take a “bipartisan” approach to America’s problems don’t flow like water down the Potomac River. Despite the deep tribal...

Seven years ago, when I wrote my first column for Policy Options magazine, the topic was Alberta’s white-hot labour market and how the poaching of workers was growing into a...

British political culture is wary of intellectualism — not for nothing is “muddle through” a British aphorism — and its governments are usually wary of big ideas. Yet Prime...

Five years ago, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein published Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness, a book that asked us to fundamentally change the way we think about...

Is it better to tell taxpayers that they are late paying their taxes and face fines? Or are they more likely to comply when told that 9 out of...

Nudge theory. Neuroeconomics. Reputational game theory. Psychophysics. Behavioural economics. I love them all. Why? Well, self-interest plays a part. I work in advertising. And after a few years working...

Libertarian paternalism– or the idea of ”nudge,” as it is better known– has been embraced by governments on both sides of the Atlantic as a way to increase people’s well-being while...

The arrival of nudge theory on the policy scene has not been received with universal enthusiasm. Groups of academics and commentators have levelled harsh criticisms — political, practical and ethical...

“Banker’s hours”: working or being open for the shortest and most inconvenient amount of time (10 a.m.- 4 p.m.). Also includes a long lunch break and every possible holiday...

The Keystone pipeline debate is sucking all the oxygen out of a legitimate North American discussion on energy. Notwithstanding the concern opponents of the pipeline are expressing, the real...

The only period of sustained spending restraint in the medicare era lasted for four years, ending in 1997. In that time, real per capita public sector spending on health...

«Une longue ère d’austérité permanente.» Voilà comment le politologue américain Paul Pierson décrivait, au milieu des années 1990, les décennies à venir pour l’Europe et l’Amérique du Nord. De...

Canadians are not saving enough for retirement, and our population is aging. That is the worrisome context in which federal and provincial finance ministers sit down in June to...

Quebecers are living longer than ever before. Those born in the province today can expect to live, on average, 10 years more than a Quebecer born in 1960. In...

Une recommandation importante du rapport D’Amours est la mise en place d’une rente longévité (RL), qui permettrait d’accroître les revenus des retraités et d’offrir une meilleure protection contre le...

Le rapport D’Amours brosse d’abord le portrait de la situation actuelle. Il relève notamment le faible taux d’épargne-retraite des travailleurs et se montre préoccupé par les faiblesses structurelles des...

Mis sur pied par le précédent gouvernement, le comité d’experts présidé par Alban D’Amours aura agréablement surpris nombre d’observateurs avec plusieurs réflexions et recommandations intéressantes dépassant son mandat initial,...