The Ontario government changed rent controls with the aim of protecting existing tenants. But the policy change allows landlords to raise rents for new tenants. The unintended consequence provides landlords with incentives to try and get existing tenants to move. This may lead to reduced maintenance, ignoring tenant rights, [...]
In 2020, Ontario announced a 10 per cent cut in tuition fees for domestic students, while eliminating many OSAP tuition grants. While most students favour tuition cuts, this article points out that the changed policies most benefit higher-income families who never qualified for grants, while low income families who [...]
While the topic of the article is mortgage regulations, the main economic lesson is the importance of identifying unintended consequences of economic policies. Incentives are key to understanding unintended consequences. Examples of unintended consequences include how seat belt laws initially increased injuries, reasons for deductibles on insurance policies, and [...]
