What’s new
Address change, effective August 1, 2009
Effective August 1, 2009, Economica’s address will change slightly. The street address and postal code remain the same, but our suite number changes from 1190 to 1660.
Economica Ltd.1660, 700 - 4th Avenue SW
Calgary, AB, Canada, T2P 3J4
July 2009
The Summer 2009 issue of the Expert Witness newsletter has been completed and mailed. People on our mailing list should receive it before the end of July. The articles it contained are listed below.
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Alternatives to the Minor Injury Regulation
- In this article Chris Bruce identifies numerous alternative policies that could reduce automobile insurance premiums, not by reducing benefits, but by reducing the incidence and severity of automobile accidents.
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Testifying in Singapore
- In this article, Derek Aldridge discusses his experience testifying in a personal injury matter in Singapore early in 2009.
January 2009
The Winter 2008 issue of the Expert Witness newsletter has been completed. People on our mailing list should receive it before the end of January. The articles it contained are listed below.
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Premiums, Profits, and Costs of Business in Alberta’s Automobile Insurance Industry, 1996–2006
- In February 2008, Economica was retained by the Canadian Bar Association to prepare a series of reports on automobile insurance premiums in five provinces: Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. We have now completed this work, having prepared two reports on Alberta and one on each of the other four provinces. The first article in this newsletter summarises the main findings of the first of these reports, Alberta’s Minor Injury Regulation: Automobile Insurance Profits, Premium Rates, and Costs.
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Examination of Expert Witnesses
- This article is based on Chris Bruce and Derek Aldridge’s experience as panelists at a Legal Education Society of Alberta seminar on examination of expert witnesses. The article offers some recommendations regarding the examination of expert economists.
July 2008
The Spring 2008 issue of the Expert Witness newsletter has been completed. People on our mailing list should receive it by the end of July. The articles it contained are listed below.
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The Discount Rate Revisited (Spring 2008)
- This article reports on our latest survey of discount rates. We conclude that no changes to our existing discount rate assumptions are warranted, though a reduction in our long-term rate may be necessary in the future if the observed long-term rates remain significantly lower than our assumed rate.
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Mathematical Mistake: Averaging Multiple Statistical Sources Together to Form One “Overall” Average Income Figure
- In this article Laura Weir discusses an error that can occur by averaging multiple sources of statistical data in an attempt to obtain an overall average that is superior in quality to the individual averages.
June 18, 2008
On Monday, June 16, the Alberta branch of the Canadian Bar Association released a study that concludes the Alberta automobile insurance industry would continue to be highly profitable even if the $4,000 cap on payments for soft tissue injuries were removed. The study – Alberta’s Minor Injury Regulation: Automobile Insurance Profits, Premium Rates, and Costs – was prepared independently for the CBA by Economica. The press release and our report can be found here on the CBA website. The Calgary Herald reported on this issue also, and you’ll find their story here.
November 2007
The Autumn 2007 issue of the Expert Witness newsletter has been completed. People on our mailing list should receive it in the second or third week of November. The articles it contained are listed below.
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The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse
on the Educational Attainment and Adult Earnings of
Canadian Women
- This article concerns sexual abuse cases and the difficult task of determining the impact that the harm has had on the plaintiff’s earning capacity. Christopher Bruce and his colleague from the University of Calgary, Daniel Gordon, found that, on average, sexual abuse is not associated with lower educational levels or lower adult incomes among victims.
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Fatal Accident Calculations Under
the New Legislation
- In this article Kelly Rathje discusses the treatment of survivor pension benefits in fatal auto accidents, in light of the new rules defined by Alberta’s Insurance Amendment Act.
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The Impact of Poor Health on
Retirement Age
- In this article Christopher Bruce examines the evidence supporting a claim that poor health will lead to earlier retirement.
October 2007
We have made some major changes to the appearance of our web site. In addition we have added a couple of the most recent issues of our newsletter that were not on here previously. Our most recent issue of the Expert Witness is Spring 2007. The articles it contained are listed below.
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Forecasting the long-term interest
rate on Government of Canada bonds:
“market-based” versus
“conservative” investment
- In the article Christopher Bruce examines a subtle issue relating to interest rates. He explains the difference between the interest rates realised by buying bonds and holding them to maturity, and selling and re-buying before maturity. These approaches will result in different estimates of historical interest rates.
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Using the HALS/PALS data sets to
estimate a loss of income
- In the article Derek Aldridge discusses the potential usefulness of Statistics Canada’s HALS/PALS disability statistics when attempting to estimate a person’s loss of income. His opinion is that while one can use these data sets to predict a loss of income, in most cases these predictions are not helpful for our purposes.