Mark Kamstra
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markkamstra.com
Mark Kamstra
@markkamstra.com
1.8K followers 47 following 1.9K posts
Economist, econometrician, empirical finance focused, photographer.
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markkamstra.com
Remembrance Day, Queen's Park Toronto. The soldiers represent lost souls from WWI, ghosts who don't interact with us but remain.
This vertical panorama displays a memorial to World War I soldiers, bathed in the setting sun, framed by large trees, yellow and burnt red coloured. At the base of the memorial are six steps and a cluster of soldiers, in period dress, volunteers honouring the lost souls of WWI conflicts. They stand or sit on the north end of the base of the memorial, facing Avenue road, quiet, indifferent to the rest of us. They are ghosts, gone but not forgotten.
November 23, 2025 at 4:00 AM
markkamstra.com
Toronto's Distillery District, with the annual holiday season celebration already in full swing. We thought we might have less trouble parking and smaller crowds last Sunday with the Grey Cup championship game on, but with the Argos on the sidelines, no such luck.
A tight view of a lineup at the entrance to a building, the lower center of the photo filled by a young woman, staring down at her hand and phone, brown hair backlit. The background beyond her is framed by a row of small cabins on one side, a red brick building on the other, filled with a crowd of people, all thrown out of focus separating and isolating her. Above it all is a neon sign "Naughty or Nice", which is a themed holiday bar at the Distillery Winter Village.
November 23, 2025 at 3:47 AM
markkamstra.com
Mmm - fungus www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...
This engineered fungus cuts emissions and tastes like meat
Scientists used CRISPR to boost the efficiency and digestibility of a fungus already known for its meatlike qualities. The modified strain grows protein far more quickly and with much less sugar while...
www.sciencedaily.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:25 PM
markkamstra.com
Noticing Bitcoin's recent decline (so much volatility - what goes down must come up?). Wondering if the bubble is popping. That won't happen until people need cash for real things, or panic. Looking at Google Trends data on searches for bitcoin and "bitcoin crash" I don't see anything developing.
November 21, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Mark Kamstra
lisakramer.com
How does gender identity relate to pension plans?

0.33% of the Canadian population aged 15+ identified as transgender or non-binary in 2021.

This article discusses implications for actuarial considerations like life expectancy and commuted value in pensions.

www.benefitscanada.com/archives_/be...
A cartoon image depicting two people walking, wearing bright colours and stripes, while holding a pride/rainbow flag. Image credit: Tylijura/Pixabay. Free for use under the Pixabay Content License. Source: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/pride-rainbow-lgbt-flag-equality-9587896/
November 12, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Mark Kamstra
lisakramer.com
In case you missed it, the recording of Meera Paleja's webinar, which I moderated, is now available.

Topic: Enhancing the Investor Experience: A Behavioural Science Perspective

youtu.be/_O1X90byftE?...
BEAR Webinar: Meera Paleja (Ontario Securities Commission)
YouTube video by BEAR - Behavioural Economics in Action at Rotman
youtu.be
November 14, 2025 at 5:14 PM
markkamstra.com
I ran the same Python program on two different PCs. Got mostly the same output (I generated random numbers to swap out an estimate, which vary every time the program runs, so it was not going to be identical) but 0.1% of the time it failed on one and not the other. I hate puzzles like this.
November 6, 2025 at 2:08 PM
markkamstra.com
I don't know why we have so many bushes and grasses growing on rooftops and gutters in the neighborhood, but here is the proof. Most weirdly, the bush/tree on the roof below us was dug up, roots exposed, then repotted. Is this a "green" roof initiative? I kid, but someone help me understand this.
A bush, brightly lit by the setting sun, partially dug up on a roof, exposing long roots, roof-top insulation (torn up to expose roots). The bush/tree seems to be mostly in a root-top drain, but the roots are clearly invading the insulation. The same bush/tree, with a worker in the frame carefully covering the roots leaving the bush in place. A neighboring roof top of the Vic Collage food hall, with a substantial bush/tree growing robustly in the gutter. Another shot of the nearest roof top (it is the McKinsey building) with more bushes and grass growing, undisturbed.
November 5, 2025 at 3:18 AM
markkamstra.com
Enjoyed another lovely sunset, fall colours and a Halloween vibe. Now about to watch the bottom of the ninth, Blue Jays down but not out.
Toronto skyline as day turns to night. The horizon bisects the scene from side to side and the CN Tower bisects it from top to bottom. It is sunset, and the sky is dark purple with pinks and purples shading the fall colours of the city below.
November 1, 2025 at 3:08 AM
markkamstra.com
I'm not even a ball fan, but here I am watching the 16th inning of a game famously designed for 9.
October 28, 2025 at 6:03 AM
markkamstra.com
It was a good day to do the CN Tower Edge walk. It was a better day to be in my apartment and photograph other people dangling over 1,100 feet above the hard, hard ground.
The CN Tower looms over an apartment building in the foreground, with little in the frame apart from the main pod of the tower. A little off-center is a small group of people walking around the edge of the CN Tower (the activity is appropriately called the "Edge Walk"). They have just rounded the north-facing side of the tower, now brightly lit by the setting sun.
October 27, 2025 at 12:33 AM
markkamstra.com
An annual tradition in Toronto is lighting up the CN Tower with jack-o'-lanterns come October.
A view of the CN Tower in Toronto, blue light shining on it and a jack-o'-lantern visible on the lower end of the main pod (over 1,110 feet up). Part of the tower is obscured by an apartment tower on the left (east) and both buildings are seen only partially, from hundreds of feet above their bases.
October 26, 2025 at 5:43 PM
markkamstra.com
I think that we need to add project management to b-school curriculums as required, second year courses. Or maybe high school. Or develop really good AI assistants.
October 26, 2025 at 3:23 PM
markkamstra.com
I just found out (thanks to a JEL review of The Silver Empire) that Richard Thaler, 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics, has a family name appropriately steeped in numismatic history. Thalers were silver coins minted in Europe from which the name dollar evolved from. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar
Dollar - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
October 24, 2025 at 3:30 PM
markkamstra.com
On the corner of Yorkville Ave and Avenue Rd sits a long delayed construction project, now humming with activity. I caught it on a quiet day, and I was startled by the tangle of plastic piping being threaded through the steel rebar of the parking garage.
A construction site on a quiet day, revealing a tangle of plastic piping being threaded through the steel rebar of the emerging parking garage. The view is through a wire barrier, blurred out of focus, and then through a wooden fence, more of a railing, functional if not elegant. There is no view of the street or surroundings; the steep angle of the shot permits only an impression of the deep hole that this building is rising from, grey concrete holding back the earth and buildings beyond.
October 24, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Reposted by Mark Kamstra
lisakramer.com
“Within a seminar series, women are interrupted more than men. This holds when controlling for characteristics of the presenter, paper, and audience. Interruptions that are negative in tenor or tone, or cutoff the presenter mid-sentence, increase for women presenters.”
Abstract We assess whether men and women are treated differently when presenting their economics research. We collected data across thousands of seminars, job market talks and conference presentations, leveraging both human judgment and audio-processing algorithms to measure the number, tone and type of interruptions. Within a seminar series, women are interrupted more than men. This holds when controlling for characteristics of the presenter, paper, and audience. Interruptions that are negative in tenor or tone, or cutoff the presenter mid-sentence, increase for women presenters. We also find greater engagement of female audience members with female presenters, suggesting a potential role-model effect.
October 22, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by Mark Kamstra
lisakramer.com
🚨 Call for abstracts 🚨

Animal Welfare Economics Conference 2026 🐷🐮🐥🐟🐾

University of Chicago, June 29-30, 2026

Submission deadline: January 15, 2026

Submission link: subscribepage.io/abstract-sub...

#EconConf
Submit an Abstract: Animal Welfare Economics Conference 2026
Submit your abstract for the 2026 Animal Welfare Economics Conference at the University of Chicago. Accepted presenters receive travel support.
subscribepage.io
October 22, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Mark Kamstra
lisakramer.com
At the Kroner Center for Financial Research we invite proposals for up to $75K in funding for projects on any of three topics: inflation/stagflation hedging, digitization/tokenization in pension fund asset allocation, or the role of AI in strategic asset allocation.

www.ssrn.com/index.cfm/en...
announcement :: SSRN
www.ssrn.com
October 13, 2025 at 3:52 PM
markkamstra.com
Fall is creeping up on us, the nights are getting longer, the breezes getting more and more crisp.
A view across a field and Victoria College toward downtown Toronto, moon rising to the east, sun just about down, the sky traced with contrails and high clouds. Deep shadows obscure the spaces between the sunlit west-facing turrets and towers. Another view of downtown Toronto, this one tighter with the turrets of Vic College dominating the scene and the parliament buildings stacked like leaves behind. It is earlier in the day, later in the month, with more colour, a few sharp reds and light yellows. Low clouds topped by light blue skies remind me that a lake the size of an ocean is just beyond the city.
October 20, 2025 at 12:11 AM
markkamstra.com
Reading articles asking "where are the productivity gains from AI?" I flashback to pretty much every tech revolution. At first people sort out how to use the tech. My wife working at IBM in the 80s had a manager dictating memos for her to type into a PC. He probably never learned how to use a PC.
October 13, 2025 at 2:06 PM
markkamstra.com
Watched Eugene Levy's Reluctant Traveler RV trip to New Orleans. Crayfish were featured, taking me back to my days at the Atlanta Fed. Our president had a soft spot for "crawfish". Flights from NO to Atlanta delivered checks & on occasion a bag of crawfish appeared in the president's office.
October 11, 2025 at 2:19 AM
markkamstra.com
Apparently the "books have closed" on the US gov't fiscal year and they show no material savings generated by DOGE. I cannot keep track of the many naive outsiders to gov't (or any business, really) who think that those that came before them were too dumb to save money by cutting waste.
October 9, 2025 at 5:20 PM
markkamstra.com
Talking to a student, going through online practice quiz questions, they remarked on several they couldn't get. I asked why they didn't use AI to work it out, and they confirmed that after several failures they did. But apparently my questions stumped every AI. Should I be happy?
October 8, 2025 at 12:34 PM
markkamstra.com
Ontario's Stratford Festival has announced its next Artistic Director. I am sorry to see the current director, Antoni Cimolino, retiring, but I am looking forward to seeing more great theatre over the coming years.

www.broadwayworld.com/toronto/arti...
Stratford Festival Reveals Jonathan Church as Next Artistic Director
The Stratford Festival has announced the appointment of Jonathan Church as Artistic Director. A dual U.K.-Canada citizen, Church is one of the most respected figures in theatre. He has directed more t...
www.broadwayworld.com
October 1, 2025 at 2:18 PM
markkamstra.com
Some MSFT bonds are selling above comparable US Treasuries. That is always a tricky exercise, finding truly comparable bonds, but markets can be trickier still. So, caution flags are now flying for US markets. Red flags, like t-bills selling above par, are still down. For now.
September 29, 2025 at 6:46 PM