Gherardo Caracciolo here: I suggest the author of this post reviews what a difference in difference is, and how it is carried out. Clearly it hasn't been understoond.
Thanks for your comment. As a layperson, I indeed don't understand how comparing the rental market on the Vancouver side and the Burnaby side of Boundary Road makes sense. Would you be able to explain the difference in difference method, and how it applies in this case?
Diff-in-Diff compares the average change over time in the outcome variable for a treatment group to the average change over time for a control group. Key for a correct identification is that treatment group and control group must be exactly the same EXCEPT for the policy of interest. In this case: the two sides of Boundary Road are exactly the same EXCEPT for being subject to the tax.
Also, let me add, it's quite unprofessional to mark a study as 'bad' without even being familiar with the methodology. One should at least make sure to study the techniques used before expressing value judgments.
CD Howe was cited the other day to prove that gas prices in Vancouver are entirely due to pipeline capacity, that it's just a myth that there is collusion in the industry.
....but they don't explain why the gas prices drop as soon as you leave Vancouver itself. The study just doesn't look at relative pricing as you go up the #1 or the #5, further away from the big market, but not from the pipeline issue.
So I'm kind of suspicious of CD Howe for some time to come.
Content-blocked, but I’ll take your word for it. There is some intuitive correctness to it - I’d wondered for years how such a thing could be allowed to go on.
There's a TransLink tax of 18.5 c/L. Vancouver Sun: "This transit tax covers Metro Vancouver north to Lions Bay, west including Bowen Island, south to the U.S.-Canada border, and east including Langley, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows."
Gherardo Caracciolo here: I suggest the author of this post reviews what a difference in difference is, and how it is carried out. Clearly it hasn't been understoond.
Thanks for your comment. As a layperson, I indeed don't understand how comparing the rental market on the Vancouver side and the Burnaby side of Boundary Road makes sense. Would you be able to explain the difference in difference method, and how it applies in this case?
Diff-in-Diff compares the average change over time in the outcome variable for a treatment group to the average change over time for a control group. Key for a correct identification is that treatment group and control group must be exactly the same EXCEPT for the policy of interest. In this case: the two sides of Boundary Road are exactly the same EXCEPT for being subject to the tax.
Also, let me add, it's quite unprofessional to mark a study as 'bad' without even being familiar with the methodology. One should at least make sure to study the techniques used before expressing value judgments.
CD Howe was cited the other day to prove that gas prices in Vancouver are entirely due to pipeline capacity, that it's just a myth that there is collusion in the industry.
https://www.cdhowe.org/sites/default/files/2024-08/E-Brief_357_v2.pdf
....but they don't explain why the gas prices drop as soon as you leave Vancouver itself. The study just doesn't look at relative pricing as you go up the #1 or the #5, further away from the big market, but not from the pipeline issue.
So I'm kind of suspicious of CD Howe for some time to come.
I actually think that study (by Kent Fellows) holds up https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/e3ld5y/economists_analysis_of_gas_price_gouging_in/
Content-blocked, but I’ll take your word for it. There is some intuitive correctness to it - I’d wondered for years how such a thing could be allowed to go on.
There's a TransLink tax of 18.5 c/L. Vancouver Sun: "This transit tax covers Metro Vancouver north to Lions Bay, west including Bowen Island, south to the U.S.-Canada border, and east including Langley, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows."