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We study the post -2000 productivity slowdown in Canada. Due to data limitation, the causes of the slowdown have not been studied systematically. Unlike most previous studies that focus directly on the actual productivity, in this paper we decompose the actual productivity into two components: technological frontier and technical efficiency. Technological frontier measures the maximum level of productivity potential related to firm-specific technology development while technical efficiency reflects the ability/technique in achieving the potential. Using a constructed rich micro data, we find that Canada's productivity slowdown cannot be largely explained by factors such as R&D, ICTs and intangibles that are considered to be important to productivity. Instead, we show that the productivity slowdown in Canada was mainly due to the retreat of aggregate technological frontier, driven by large and high-productivity firms.

There have been strong evidence showing a declining trend of firm dynamism in many other OECD countries over the last three decades. However, so far there has no compelling evidence that points to ...

Using the Longitudinal Annual Survey of Manufacturers for Canada, this paper aims to better understand the productivity dynamics of entrants and exits as well as the factors associated with their productivity performance. It shows that entrants and exits are lower in labour productivity relative to continuing plants partly because they are smaller in size, less capital intensive, and less associated with exporting, being foreign-controlled and belonging to multi-plant firm structure. It also finds that after controlling for those factors, surviving entrants are less productive when they enter and that they improve their productivity over time to become as productive as continuing plants by around year five after entry. Exits, on the other hand, are found to be less productive than continuing plants after controlling for those factors, and the gap becomes larger as they get closer to exit.

Background and Aims Transport of membranes and proteins in eukaryotic cells is mediated by vesicular carriers. Coatomer complex I (COPI)-coated vesicles are involved in the transport between endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi complex. Several studies indicated that some subunits of COPI were correlated with the cell proliferation of malignant tumors. The present study focused on the function of coatomer protein complex subunit β 2 (COPB2), one of seven proteins in COPI, in prostate cancer (PCa). Methods COPB2 gene expression was first analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 15 paired PCa and carcinoma adjacent normal tissue from patients. To investigate the role of COPB2 in PCa, we used lentivirus-mediated small interfering RNA (siRNA) to knockdown COPB2 expression in human PCa cell line PC-3 and assessed it by RT-qPCR. Cellomics ArrayScan VTI imaging and colony formation were conducted to evaluate cell proliferation. Cell cycle phase arrest and apoptosis were assayed by flow cytometry. Results COPB2 gene was upregulated in the PCa tissue. Cell proliferation was significantly inhibited in COPB2-silenced PC-3 cells using both Cellomics ArrayScan VTI imaging and colony formation assays. S-phase cell counts were significantly decreased; G1- and G2-phase cell counts were significantly increased in COPB2-siRNA group than the control group. Apoptosis was significantly increased in COPB2-siRNA cells. Conclusions COPB2 significantly promoted PC-3 cell proliferation and colony formation through the cell cycle and apoptosis pathway. Moreover, COPB2 showed a clinical correlation and may serve as a biomarker for the detection for PCa.

Integrated management, utilizing different non-chemical methods, is an approach to controlling postharvest losses that is being actively investigated. In the present study, the use of an antagonistic yeast, Candida diversa, combined with harpin (a hypersensitive response elicitor) treatment was evaluated for their ability to prevent infection of kiwifruit after they were artificially inoculated with Botrytis cinerea or Penicillium expansum. Natural infection of treated fruit was also assessed. As a standalone treatment, C. diversa or harpin significantly reduced gray (B. cinerea) and blue mold (P. expansum) infections on kiwifruit, relative to the untreated control fruit, and also reduced the level of natural infection. The combination of C. diversa and harpin treatment, however, provided a superior level of control on fruit, relative to either treatment alone. Harpin did not negatively impact C. diversa growth in kiwifruit wounds. Treatment of kiwifruit with C. diversa and harpin alone or in combination also induced the activity of enzymes involved in defense response, such as polyphenol oxidase, peroxidase and superoxide dismutase. Harpin alone or in combination with C. diversa enhanced accumulation of lignin content in kiwifruit as well. The mode of action by which harpin enhanced biocontrol efficacy of C. diversa may be partially attributed to the elicitation of defense response in kiwifruit. Integrating the use of antagonistic yeast with harpin treatment has potential as an effective method for the control of postharvest decay in kiwifruit.

In the globalized economy, it has become essential for firms to re-organize their production to grow and to be competitive in both domestic and international markets. Over the past decade, offshori...

The Canadian petroleum and coal product manufacturing industry primarily engages in transforming crude petroleum and coal into intermediate and end products. The dominant production is petroleum refining, which involves the separation of crude petroleum into component products through such techniques as cracking and distillation. The petroleum and coal products manufacturing industry is one of the industries with the weakest productivity performance in Canada in the post 2000 period. This paper assesses the structural change and plant dynamics facing the Canadian industry in such an environment with increasingly demand for energy products and unconventional deposits being extracted and processed, and discusses the industrial policy implications for the productivity performance of this industry.

Labour productivity growth in the Canadian electronic and electrical product manufacturing industry declined, from 21% per year in the period 1997–2000, to negative 4% per year in the period 2000–2006. This paper investigates if the restructuring and the reallocation of market share and resource within the industry following the bursting of the tech bubble in 2000 contributed to the slowdown in productivity growth. The reallocation may be a result of change in the composition of constituent sub-industries (industry mix), the entry of new firms and the exit of existing firms, and/or the growth and decline in continuing firms. This paper shows that the slowdown in productivity growth in the Canadian electronic and electrical product industry was mainly due to weaker productivity performance of the sub-industries, which can largely be traced to the decline in labour productivity growth of continuing plants. It finds that the reallocation had some impact, but it was not the primary factor behind the d...

Offshoring becomes an increasingly important strategy for Canadian businesses to compete in domestic and international markets. It is facilitated by advances in transportation and communications te...

Labour productivity growth in the Canadian business sector has averaged less than 1.0 percent since 2000, more than 40 percent below the average growth rate during 1981–2000. On the other hand, labour productivity growth accelerated in the U.S. in the post-2000 period compared to the average growth prior to 2000. Available research shows that the divergence in labour productivity growth was entirely due to the gap in multifactor productivity (MFP) growth. This paper looks at the possible role of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in the recent productivity growth divergence between the two countries. Using data on 33 industries over the period 1987–2000, it examines empirically the impact of ICTs on MFP growth in Canada and the U.S., taking into account ICT-related investments in intangibles and the issue of endogeneity of the explanatory variables. The regression results suggest that ICT capital is not a significant determinant of MFP growth in Canada and the U.S., implying that i...

Advanced technologies are commonly thought to be complementary to skills. Firms that adopt new technologies (for example, computer-aided design and control) and at the same time invest in skills (for example, training in computer literacy and technical skills) are expected to realize greater productivity gains than those that do not. To validate this expectation, this paper first identifies the combinations of technologies and types of training that are commonly undertaken by firms, presumably as part of their strategies to effectively utilize the adopted technologies and to improve their economic performance. This paper then estimates the relationship between these common technology-training combinations and productivity performance. It shows that these combinations are associated with higher productivity.

By the extremal numberex(v;{C"3,C"4,...,C"n}) we denote the maximum number of edges in a graph of order v and girth at least g>=n+1. The set of such graphs is denoted by EX(v;{C"3,C"4,...,C"n}). In 1975, Erdos mentioned the problem of determining extremal numbers ex(v;{C"3,C"4}) in a graph of order v and girth at least five. In this paper, we consider a generalized version of the problem for any value of girth by using the hybrid simulated annealing and genetic algorithm (HSAGA). Using this algorithm, some new results for n>=5 have been obtained. In particular, we generate some graphs of girth 6,7 and 8 which in some cases have more edges than corresponding cages. Furthermore, future work will be described regarding the investigation of structural properties of such extremal graphs and the implementation of HSAGA using parallel computing.

A graph is superconnected, for short [email protected], if all minimum vertex-cuts consist of the vertices adjacent with one vertex. In this paper we prove for any r-regular graph of diameter D and odd girth g that if [email protected]?g-2, then the graph is [email protected] when g>=5 and a complete graph otherwise.

The degree/diameter problem is to determine the largest graphs or digraphs of given maximum degree and given diameter. This paper deals with directed graphs. General upper bounds, called Moore bounds, exist for the largest possible order of such digraphs of maximum degree d and given diameter k. It is known that simulated annealing and genetic algorithm are effective techniques to identify global optimal solutions.This paper describes our attempt to build a Hybrid Simulated Annealing and Genetic Algorithm (HSAGA) that can be used to construct large digraphs. We present our new results obtained by HSAGA, as well as several related open problems.

This paper considers the microfoundations of agglomeration economies, in particular agglomeration economies that arise from uncertainty. The paper begins with a simple model that captures several sorts of uncertainty-driven agglomeration. These include competitive instability, the need for skilled workers, and technological innovativeness. The model's key result is that firms facing more uncertainty will agglomerate with each other in large cities or industry clusters. Firms facing less uncertainty will be found in small cities or outside of clusters. The paper tests these ideas by employing survey data to see if establishments in large cities or industry clusters describe themselves as facing these sorts of uncertainty. The empirical results are consistent with the existence of all three of the agglomerative forces mentioned above. However, the forces operate in different ways. Competitive instability and technological innovativeness are associated with city size, while skill-orientation is associated with industry clustering.

This paper attempts to shed light on the complex relationship between innovation and competition. Traditional measures of product market competition using industry statistics are often challenged and found wanting. Using the Statistics Canada 1999 Survey of Innovation, this paper develops new measures of competition by arguing that firms’ perceptions about their competitive environment are important for innovation and are better measures of firm-specific competition. It shows that the relationship can be positive or negative, depending on specific competition perception and specific innovation activity. In addition, it shows that firms tend to bundle process innovation with product innovation, implying that the economic value of process innovation is likely embodied in product innovation.