This description, produced within the CIRANO research program on productivity, seeks to unearth the innovative economic policies that could be adapted to the Quebec context. To better understand these innovations, the cases of Bavaria, Ireland, and New-Zealand were studied and lessons for Quebec...

The positive social return on most health expenditure leads us to suggest a shift in Quebec to move away from attempts at restricting these outlays and towards a "growth management"" attitude. Such an attitude also proves compatible with the conclusions of the numerous public reports recently...

This paper first recalls the high level of public indebtedness in Quebec. A literature review and a description of the evolution of the problematics, carried out by the means of a retrospective analysis as well as a projection exercise, show (1) the "uncoupling"" of the public finances that...

Many recent empirical studies have shown that recent cohorts of immigrants to western countries face more hardship than previous cohorts. In Quebec, for instance, the welfare dependency rates of immigrants have steadily increased between 1982 and 1998 and are insensitive to fluctuations in the...

In this paper we evaluate the effectiveness of R&D tax incentives in Quebec, using manufacturing firm data from 1997 to 2003 originating from R&D surveys, annual surveys of manufactures and administrative data. The estimated price elasticity of R&D is -0.10 in the short run and -0.14 in the long...

In this report, we examine whether the proportion of workers who receive training (and whether the training duration) varies with age in Quebec and Ontario using data from the Workplace and Employee Survey from 1999-2004. In general, we find that the probability that a worker receives training...

This study compares Quebec's tax effort with that of the other Canadian provinces. The results show that the tax effort is higher in Quebec than in any other Canadian province. In the first section, the authors expose the global situation that currently prevails in Quebec. In the second section,...

In this report, we estimate returns to training (in terms of wages and productivity) using data from the Workplace and Employee survey from 199-2004 and investigate whether these returns vary with age. Although we find that the returns to training on wages is fairly constant across all age...

This report was generated in the framework of consultations by the Expert Panel on Equalization and Territorial Formula Financing. The study first presents a brief history of equalization and the evolution of its main parameters. The principal issues are discussed next, in particular the...

We propose a new measure of total factor productivity (TFP) growth in a general equilibrium setting.It measures by how much the efficiency frontier moves outwards given the availability of primary ressources, the technology and the structure of domestic final demand. Prices are endogenous. We...