Productivity Growth in Canadian and U.S. Regulated Industries

This article compares the productivity growth of a set of Canadian and U.S. regulated industries. Using data from Statistics Canada’s KLEMS database and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the article examines productivity growth in transportation services (which includes air, rail, and other transportation services), broadcasting and telecommunications, cultural industries (which include publishing and information services, and motion pictures and sound recording), and financial services (which includes financial intermediation and insurance) over the period from 1977 to 2006. These industries provide the foundational networks on which other industries rely. In 1977, they were quite heavily regulated in Canada. They experienced deregulation after 1977, but still faced various types of regulation in 2006. Deregulation also occurred in the United States, but regulation has generally been less restrictive in that country over the period.