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This paper adds to the literature on the relationship between information technology (IT) and productivity growth in four ways. First, in order to establish a meaningful comparison between Canada & the United States in terms of IT, it discusses the ways IT is currently reflected in the statistical infrastructure of the existing statistical systems. Second, using a comparable data set, it provides a comprehensive investigation on the role of IT in Canada-US output growth, inputs growth, & productivity growth. Third, it examines how IT-producing & IT-using industries contributed to the acceleration of aggregate multifactor productivity performance in the Canada-US productivity revival in the 1990s. The results suggest that different forces have contributed to the recent productivity revival in the two countries. Finally, the paper traces the sources of the difference between Canada & the US in the contribution of IT to the productivity revival at both the aggregate & industry level. Where the price behaviour appears substantially different, the paper attempts to identify the potential source of the difference and to make a structured guess on what the Canada-US productivity performance would be had the two countries shared similar price series.

This paper measures the volatility of manufacturing employment in different Canadian regions for the period 1976-97. It first examines the structural characteristics of regional economies and relates them to their levels of employment volatility. The analysis then focuses on testing whether diversity, growth, plant size and export intensity are empirically related to volatility levels. The analysis also examines whether increases in export orientation of a region over the levels. The analysis also examines whether increases in export orientation of a region over the study period were associated with changes in industry specialization and employment volatility.

This paper assesses the degree of spatial socio-economic diversity exhibited across Canada by using 1996 Census of Population data aggregated at the Census division level. The study is based on a range of commonly used & understood demographic, social, & economic variables. A factor analysis is conducted to identify underlying dimensions that characterize each Census division across Canada. Six factors are identified that account for about 78 percent of the variance in the data set: labour force & economic attributes, remote & agro-rural attributes, demographic & labour force attributes, complex manufacturing versus primary production employment attributes, traditional manufacturing versus government employment attributes, and demographic dynamics. The spatial distribution of these factors reveal regional differences as well as differences between Census division types.

This paper uses a detailed industry-level data base of industry prices in the manufacturing sector in Canada and the United States to investigate whether prices are co-integrated in the two countries and whether the relationship between the two sets of prices follows the law of one price. We find that aggregate Canadian price movements track U.S. price movements closely, but not perfectly, in the long run. But there are substantial deviations from the law of one price in the short run. Moreover, many individual industries deviate from the law of one price. These deviations are related to the degree of tariff protection and to the degree of product differentiation at the industry level.