Three Policies to Improve Productivity Growth in Canada

Andrew Sharpe

No 2007-05, CSLS Research Reports from Centre for the Study of Living Standards

Abstract: This paper makes the case that productivity is Canada’s economic destiny and that Canada’s dismal productivity performance, both from a historical and international perspective, therefore represents our biggest economic challenge. It then puts forward three specific policies to improve Canada’s productivity performance: foster the diffusion of best-practice technologies; remove the provincial sales tax on purchases of machinery and equipment; and promote interprovincial movement of workers by improving labour market information, removing professional barriers to labour mobility, and establishing a tax credit for interprovincial job search. It finds that the short-term costs of these policies would be greatly outweighed by the long-term benefits associated with their implementation.

Keywords: productivity; technology diffusion; machinery and equipment; provincial sales tax; interprovincial migration; labour mobility; Canada (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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