For only the third time, I'm in Canada ... again in Edmonton for an all work, sports economics-style, some [?] play adventure. The first trip resulted in a paper, Willingness to pay for amateur sport and recreation programs, forthcoming in Contemporary Economic Policy with another very famous sports economist, Bruce Johnson, and two very famous sports non-economists, Dan Mason and Gord Walker. This second trip should result in, at least, a couple of papers in leading journals (e.g., AER, JPE, QJE, etc) and a number of heavy, beefy meals that will take me a couple of weeks to recover from.
Travel notes:
- Signs of an oil boom. Guy behind me on the plane asks another guy: "Why are you going to Edmonton." Other guy (from Ft. Worth says): "We're building a couple of oil rigs up there."
- I found $15C from my trip last year. Based on the current exchange rate, my little speculative move (overbuy Canadian dollars last year) has led to a windfall of about $1C as the U.S. dollar has depreciation over the past 12 months. In other words, last year it cost me $0.90 to buy $1C, this year it will cost me about $0.96.
- Remember to declare your laptop at Customs. I forgot for the second year in a row. Not as bad as last year (last year I faced a library cop-type customs agent), but I had some explaining to do! I know, this is nothing to joke about.
