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The devil is in the details: What economists may be missing
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012
Jul 17, 2012
… despite a number of structural reforms over the past two decades, such as NAFTA, GST, price stability, the elimination of the fiscal deficit and the CPP/QPP reform…. weak organizational innovation… would explain why all the productivity-enhancing policy changes we have introduced may not be bearing fruit… there is a need to survey Canadian businesses on their organizational structures and innovation practices in a consistent and ongoing manner to be able to carefully study the links that have been found to be important in other countries.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Wanted: culture of innovation
Friday, September 16th, 2011
Sep. 16, 2011
our productivity growth has dropped substantially, from average growth of close to 3 per cent annually from 1961 to 1980, to under 1 per cent since 2000. And that gap between Canada and the U.S. has widened in the past decade, despite the relative improvement of macroeconomic fundamentals in our country…. Such innovation can be improved by five key drivers. First, competition matters to corporate behaviour… Second, Canada… delivers much of its private-sector innovation support through the tax system. We should be providing more direct support through new channels…
Tags: economy, globalization, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
A Canada-U.S. tax gap means a Canada-U.S. tax transfer
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
Apr. 20, 2011
…our rates fall substantially below U.S. rates. According to the 2010 budget, the Canadian corporate tax rate at 16.2 per cent in 2012 would be half that of the U.S. at 34.2 per cent, with a still-to-come 1.5-point drop. Under Article XXIV of the Canada-U.S. tax treaty, any U.S. citizen, resident or company earning income in Canada is subject to U.S. tax, with a credit for Canadian tax paid or accrued. This is critical…. [It] could result in a potential $500-million annual tax transfer from Canada to the U.S. for every point reduction in the Canadian tax rate.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Lack of census data will imperil policy-making
Sunday, October 31st, 2010
Oct 31 2010
Data from the long-form census offers two important conclusions. First, economic performance of immigrants, as captured by the earnings of immigrants relative to the native population, is on a downward trend. Second, this gap does not close even after immigrants have been here for up to 20 years. These are unpleasant facts… Any seemingly positive developments that the NHS may show on the relative performance of earnings of immigrants may be consistent with improvement in their outcomes or simply be the result of a higher response rate from those immigrants with higher incomes.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
We still have time to reverse the census decision
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
August 10, 2010
By making a decision on a technical issue – which the government has every right to do under the current legislation – the government risks the creation of a trust gap. It takes ages to establish credibility. It takes much less to tarnish it… I urge the government to rethink its position on the census. We still have time to reverse the decision.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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