Trevor Tombe

Professor of Economics

Biography

Welcome to my website. I’m a Professor of Economics at the University of Calgary and a Research Fellow at The School of Public Policy. I am also co-director of Finances of the Nation. My academic research explores a broad range of topics, but focuses mainly on international trade, macroeconomics, and fiscal federalism. In addition to this work, I actively contribute to public policy research and outreach in Alberta and Canada.

My CV is available here

My conflict disclosure is here

Interests

International Trade
Macroeconomics and Productivity
Public Policy

Education

PhD in Economics, 2011

University of Toronto
MA in Economics, 2006

University of Toronto
BBA in Finance and Economics, 2005

Simon Fraser University

Working Papers

Under Review

More Publications

Yu Chen, Trevor Tombe. The Aggregate Productivity Effect of Labour and Capital Market Distortions in Canada. Revision Requested, Canadian Journal of Economics, 2020.

PDF

Featured Publications

The Rise (And Fall?) of Inflation in Canada: A Detailed Analysis of Its Post-Pandemic Experience

Canada’s inflation rate rose to generational highs in 2022. We explore this rapid surge. Using new methods and detailed household consumption data, we separately identify demand- and supply-driven price increases. We find the latter accounts for most of inflation’s rise-especially among energy-intensive and highly traded items. In addition, we find items with normally transitory price changes or those highly sensitive to interest rates account for nearly all the increase. Our work sheds important new light on recent inflation trends and illustrates new empirical methods that can add value to inflation monitoring efforts in Canada.

Yu Chen, Trevor Tombe

Canadian Public Policy, forthcoming, 2023

PDF Code Dataset Journal Website

Final and Unalterable - But Up for Negotiation: Federal-Provincial Transfers in Canada

Federal transfers are a central but ever-changing feature of Canada’s federation. Despite early hopes that transfer arrangements were ‘a final and unalterable settlement’ of provincial demands, complex economic and political pressures forced successive governments to negotiate. To explore this history and Canada’s various transfer programs, I compile uniquely detailed data from Confederation to today. Explicit transfers to provincial governments are large, but more equally distributed today than throughout most of Canada’s history. I also propose a uniform methodology to quantify and analyze both explicit and implicit fiscal transfers. Overall, federal tax and spending activities redistribute just under 2 per cent of Canada’s GDP across provinces; but this too is less than any point in the past six decades. This data, analysis and brief historical review reveal why today’s transfer programs are designed as they are, what pressures they must withstand, and what future reforms might consider.

Trevor Tombe

Canadian Tax Journal, 2019

PDF Journal Website RePEc Link

Trade, Migration and Productivity: A Quantitative Analysis of China

We study how goods- and labor-market frictions affect aggregate labor productivity in China. Combining unique data with a general equilibrium model of internal and international trade, and migration across regions and sectors, we quantify the magnitude and consequences of trade and migration costs. The costs were high in 2000, but declined afterward. The decline accounts for 36% of the aggregate labor productivity growth between 2000 and 2005. Reductions in internal trade and migration costs are more important than reductions in external trade costs. Despite the decline, migration costs are still high and potential gains from further reform are large.

Trevor Tombe, Xiaodong Zhu

American Economic Review, 2019

PDF Online Appendix Ungated VoxChina RePEc Link

Recent Publications

Academic Journals

More Publications

Daniel Beland, Trevor Tombe. Reforming Canada's federal health-care funding arrangements. Canadian Public Administration 66 (1): 28-44, March 2023, 2023.

Journal Website

Yu Chen, Trevor Tombe. The Rise (And Fall?) of Inflation in Canada: A Detailed Analysis of Its Post-Pandemic Experience. Canadian Public Policy, forthcoming, 2023.

PDF Code Dataset Journal Website

Trevor Tombe. Fiscal Sustainability and Diverging Fortunes in Atlantic Canada. Atlantic Canada Economic Review 3 (1): 1-18, July 2022, 2022.

PDF Journal Website

Trevor Tombe. Book Review: The Art of Sharing by Mary Janigan. Essays in Economic and Business History 39, 246-247, 2022.

PDF The Art of Sharing Journal

Trevor Tombe. Book Review: Who Pays for Canada? Edited by E.A. Heaman and David Tough. Canadian Historical Review 102(4), December 2021, 2021.

Who Pays for Canada? Journal Website

Trevor Tombe, Jennifer Winter. Fiscal Integration with Internal Trade: Quantifying the Effects of Equalizing Transfers. Canadian Journal of Economics 54(2): 522-556, May 2021, 2021.

PDF Journal Article