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Two decades ago Canada suffered a deep recession and teetered on the brink of a debt crisis caused by rising government spending. The Wall Street Journal said that growing debt [...]

Abstract The branding of Canada's Gateway to the Asia Pacific usually refers to British Columbia's physical and infrastructure capacities to serve as a distribution node between Asian and North American [...]

According to article 24 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), preferential trade arrangements (custom unions) and free trade areas are allowed by the World Trade Organization (WTO). [...]

A comparative analysis of housing systems in Australia and Canada is conducted to study the relative decline of importance of housing policy in policy making. This relative decline may also be caused by changes in defining housing policy problems, the institutionalization of policy-making capacity, and the form and extent of civil society mobilization.

This paper sets out an improved framework for examining critical junctures. This framework, while rigorous and broadly applicable and an advance on the frameworks currently employed, primarily seeks to incorporate an a priori element. Until now the frameworks utilized in examining critical junctures were entirely postdictive. Adding a predictive element to the concept will constitute a significant advance. The new framework, and its predictive element, termed the 'differentiating factor,' is tested here in examining macro-economic crises and subsequent changes in macro-economic policy, in America and Sweden. Resume. Cet article propose un cadre ameliore pour analyser les conjonctures critiques. Bien que rigoureux, largement applicable et representant en soi une avance sur les modeles actuellement utilises, ce cadre cherche principalement a incorporer un element a priori. Jusqu'ici les cadres servant a l'etude des conjonctures critiques etaient entierement fondes sur la postdiction. L'ajout d'un element predictif constituera une avance notable. Cet article examine la validite du nouveau cadre et de son element predictif, appele <>, a la lumiere des crises macro-economiques en Amerique et en Suede et des changements de politique macroeconomique qu'elles ont entraines dans leur sillon.

Using time series, cross-sectional econometric modelling, an analysis is made of competing political and economic determinants of Canadian provincial government fiscal policy during the 1980s and 1990s. It is determined that provincial government spending responses to trade liberalization are dependent upon the ideology of the government and conditioned by the degree of provincial unionization. When relatively high levels of unionization prevail, those governments that typically spend the most reduce total spending to a lowest common denominator. However, when unionization is low, provincial government spending responses to increasing trade openness is primarily compensatory. This is in contradiction to the 'race to the bottom' theory. The contingent nature of the provincial government spending response to trade openness means that despite overall pressures for fiscal convergence, political, economic and regional factors continue to contribute to distinct provincial spending policies. Cet article utilise une modelisation econometrique transversale en serie chronologique pour analyser les determinants politiques et economiques en competition au niveau de la politique fiscale du gouvernement provincial canadien durant les annees 1980 et 1990. Il est etabli qu'en termes de depenses publiques, les reactions du gouvernement provincial face a la liberalisation des echanges sont tributaires de l'ideologie du gouvernement et determinees par le niveau de syndicalisation provincial. Lorsque le niveau de syndicalisation est relativement eleve, ce sont les gouvernements provinciaux qui depensent le plus qui reduisent leurs depenses totales au plus bas denominateur commun. Par contre, plus le niveau de syndicalisation est bas, plus les depenses publiques face a la liberalisation des echanges sont principalement compensatoires. Cela vient contredire la theorie du << nivellement par le bas >>. La nature conditionnelle de la reaction du gouvernement provincial en termes de depenses publiques signifie qu'en depit des pressions globales pour la convergence fiscale, des facteurs politiques, economiques et regionaux continuent de contribuer aux politiques de depenses publiques distinctes.

This is the first empirical study to examine Congressional support of a new law that distributes antidumping duties to protected firms. Because the law produces a transparent measure of how much each firm was rewarded for its efforts to secure the bill's passage, it provides researchers with a unique opportunity to study the link between the expected financial returns to firms, campaign contributions, and Congressional behaviour. Our results indicate that campaign contributions from beneficiaries increased the likelihood that lawmakers would sponsor the law, while contributions from the law's beneficiaries increased with the rewards they expected to receive.

This paper develops and estimates a dynamic, stochastic, general-equilibrium model with price and wage rigidities to analyze monetary policy in Canada. A monetary policy rule allows the Bank of Canada to systematically change the short-term nominal interest rate in response to deviations of inflation, output, and money growth. The structural parameters of the model are estimated econometrically using a maximum-likelihood procedure with a Kalman filter. The estimates reveal that either price or wage rigidities are key nominal frictions that generate real monetary effects. Furthermore, the simulation results show that the Bank has, since 1981, increased the short-term nominal interest rate in response to exogenous positive demand-side disturbances, and used modest but persistent reductions in the nominal interest rate to accommodate positive technology shocks. JEL classification. E31; E32; E52 Keywords: Sticky prices; Sticky wages; Canadian monetary policy

Sommaire : La grappe technologique oceanique de St. John's (Terre-Neuve et Labrador) decoule d'un interet regional naturel et d'activites economiques historiques reliees a l'ocean, ainsi que d'une serie recente d'investissements [...]

This paper examines the interaction of cote inflation and inflation targeting as a monetary policy regime. Interest in core inflation has grown because of inflation targeting. Cote inflation is defined in numerous ways giving rise to many potential measures; this paper defines core inflation as the best forecaster of inflation. A cross-country study finds before the start of inflation targeting, but not after, core inflation differs between non-inflation targeters and inflation targeters. Through conditional regressions, inflation expectations as measured by core inflation have not changed with the advent of inflation targeting nor do they differ from non-targeters. JEL classification: E52 and E31 Cible de maitrise de l'inflation et inflation sous-jacente. Ce texte examine l'interaction entre l'inflation sous-jacente et l'utilisation de cibles de maitrise de l'inflation dans un regime de politique monetaire. L'interet pour l'inflation sous-jacente a cru a proportion que l'utilisation de cibles a cru. L'inflation sous-jacente est definie de bien des manieres et se prete a plusieurs mesures potentielles; ce texte la definit comme le meilleur predicteur de l'inflation. Une etude transversale de plusieurs pays revele que l'inflation sous-jacente differe entre les pays qui ont des cibles et ceux qui n'en n'ont pas avant qu'on commence a cibler mais pas apres. Via des regressions conditionnelles, on montre que les anticipations d'inflation telles que mesurees par l'inflation sous-jacente n'ont pas change avec l'arrivee du ciblage et qu'elles ne different pas de celles des pays qui ne ciblent pas.

The asset-based financial systems of Canada and America are compared. The factors that impact the variability of interest rates are examined.

The large literature on labor-market rent sharing consists of closed economy analyses. In this article we examine whether profits are shared across borders and also conditioned by international linkages that help shape economic openness. In a sample of 1,014 Canadian manufacturing union contracts from 1980 through 1992, we find that U.S. industry profitability affects Canadian wage outcomes and that the pattern of rent sharing varies significantly across international linkages, including multinational ownership, union type, and trade barriers. There seems to be international rent sharing, with profit sharing across borders conditioned by firm- and industry-level institutions.

We develop an equilibrium model of the monetary policy transmission mechanism that highlights information frictions in the market for money and search frictions in the labour market. The information friction increases the persistence in the response of interest rates following monetary policy regime shifts. This occurs because agents have incomplete information about the nature of the shifts and optimally update their inflation forecasts using an 'adaptive' expectations rule. The search friction transmits the interest rate movements to the labour market by affecting job creation activities; together, the two frictions imply that unemployment reacts very gradually to monetary policy shocks. JEL Classification: E4, E5 Marches du travail, liquidite, et regimes de politiques monetaires. Les auteurs developpent un module d'equilibre general du mecanisme de transmission des effets de la politique monetaire qui souligne les frictions informationnelles dans le marche de la monnaie et les frictions dans le processus de recherche d'emploi dans le marche du travail. Un changement dans le regime de politique monetaire, qu'on presente ici comme une reduction exogene dans le taux cible a long terme de la croissance du stock de monnaie se traduit par un manque persistant de liquidite et un accroissement persistant du taux d'interet. Cette persistance se produit parce que les agents ont une information incomplete quant a la nature du choc, ce qui les amene a optimiser l'ajustement de leur prevision d'inflation en utilisant une regle d'anticipations adaptatives. La periode de haut taux d'interet reduit les activites de creation d'emploi darts le

In this paper we study the effects of monetary policies on employment, capital accumulation, consumption, and the term structure of interest rates in a cash-in-advance economy, where money is required for consumption expenditures. Monetary policy involves targeting the inflation rate. The detailed dynamics of the model are fully worked out. As no numerical analysis is involved, we are able to identify very clearly the different channels through which monetary policy will impinge on the important macroeconomic variables. The model is also used to discuss the 'Great Canadian Slump.' JEL Classification: E52 and E43 Politique monetaire dans une economie ou l'argent comptant est requis pour les depenses de consommation: emploi, accumulation de capital et structure temporelle des taux d'interet. Ce memoire etudie les effets des politiques monetaires sur l'emploi, l'accumulation du capital, la consommation et la structure temporelle des taux d'intere dans une economie ou l'argent comptant est requis pour les depenses de consommation. La politique monrtaire est definie par des cibles pour le taux d'inflation. On developpe la dynamique du modele en details. Comme il ne s'agit pas d'une analyse numerique, on est en mesure d'identifier clairement les differents canaux a travers lesquels la politique monetaire peut avoir un impact sur les variables macroeconomiques importantes. Le modele est aussi utilise pour discuter la <>.

This paper discusses the state of competition policy--in particular the economics of competition policy--in Canada today and considers its prospects going forward. It argues that: (i) the importance of competition policy has become accepted widely in Canada and indeed throughout much of the world; (ii) competition policy design and enforcement is in general well done in Canada; (iii) economists, including many Canadians, have played a central role in the development of an efficient and effective competition policy in Canada and elsewhere; and (iv) competition policy in Canada is today facing very serious challenges, and economists should be concerned. La politique de concurrence au Canada: progres et prospective. Ce memoire discute de l'etat de la politique de concurrence--en particulier l'economie de la politique de concurrence--au Canada aujourd'hui et examine ce qui l'attend. On suggere que (i) l'importance de la politique de concurrence est devenue largement acceptee au Canada et dans le gros du reste du monde, (ii) le dessein et l'application de la politique de concurrence sont en general bien faits au Canada; (iii) les economistes, et plusieurs Canadiens parmi eux, ont