Comparisons of Canada’s economy to that of the United States are done for several purposes. On the one hand, analysts are interested in whether there is an output gap between the two countries — whether Canada is as well off as the United States in terms of the quantities of goods and...

In this paper, we present measures of the extent of renewal in Canada’s manufacturing sector over a four decade period (1961-1999); a period that roughly represents the productive lifetime of a worker. We measure turnover over periods of one, two, three and four decades. For each timeframe, we...

This paper compares output per person across Canadian provinces — using nominal or current dollar GDP per capita as the metric over the period 1990 to 2003. Differences in GDP per capita can be attributed to differences in the underlying efficiency of provincial economies. This is measured by...

This paper investigates how changes in technology use of individual plants in the Canadian manufacturing sector are related to two measures of performance - productivity growth and market-share growth. The paper describes whether plants are adopting new advanced technologies and if they do so,...

This paper investigates the extent to which productivity growth is the result of turnover - the process that shifts output from one firm to another as a result of the competitive process. Turnover occurs because some firms gain market share and others lose it. Some turnover is due to entry and...

This paper compares GDP per capita across Canadian provinces over the period from 1990 to 2003. It starts by examining relative GDP per capita measured in current dollars across provinces and over time. The second section breaks down growth in nominal dollar GDP into a price and a volume...

This paper investigates the extent to which productivity growth is the result of firm turnover as output is shifted from one firm to another, driven by the competitive process. Turnover occurs as some firms gain market share and others lose it. Some of the resulting turnover is due to entry and...

During the post-1970 period, Canadian manufacturing prices have alternately increased and fallen relative to U.S. prices - just the reverse of the cycle in the Canada - U.S. exchange rate. But not all manufacturing industries have experienced the same amplitude of relative price changes. This...

The paper investigates how Canadian manufacturing plants adjust to an increase in low-wage import competition by changing their commodity portfolios. At the commodity level, we distinguish between 'core' versus 'peripheral' and differentiated versus homogeneous commodities. We also account for...

Productivity levels and productivity growth rates vary significantly over space. These differences are perhaps most pronounced between countries, but they remain acutely evident within national spaces as economic growth favors some cities and regions and not others. In this paper, we map the...