The consensus economic policy framework that evolved in the post-Bretton Woods era and the model of globalization to which it gave rise are in crisis due to political blowback. The framework has guided the system into a solution space that features stagnant growth and persistent deflationary...

The emerging data-driven economy (DDE) promises to intensify the distributional issues that have contributed to disruptive political change in recent years. This raises the question of whether there a solution space in this economy that allows markets to clear and societies to maintain...

Canada is developing a progressive trade agenda (PTA) that is pitched as a response to the rise of anti-globalization populism. This note reviews the concept of the PTA, its motivation, the specific elements that comprise it, the likely efficacy of these measures in addressing the factors...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) promises to have a modest impact on Canada, according to ground breaking research from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Better in than Out? Canada and the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” authors Dan Ciuriak, Ali Dadkhah, and Jingliang Xiao, find that some sectors...

The European Union is mired in a bad economic equilibrium of stagnation and deflation – stag-deflation. While the problem is excess supply and inadequate demand, current policy, premised on private-sector-investment-led growth, aims to expand supply further through ultra-low interest rates....

The digital transformation has deep implications for trade policy. The shift of economic, social and political interaction into online modes has meant a steep increase in the share of international trade conducted through e-commerce or facilitated by digital technologies, made the associated...

The digital transformation occurring worldwide poses significant challenges for a governance framework that evolved gradually and incrementally over centuries, shaped by lessons learned during the long era of industrialization and globalization in which much of today’s technology was still...

The development of new general purpose technologies centred on the nexus of Big Data, machine learning and artificial intelligence is transforming and disrupting established economic structures and markets, creating prospects for massive economic rents that incentivize strategic trade and...

The term “freedom to operate” (FTO) describes a situation where commercial activity can be undertaken without infringing on intellectual property rights held by other parties. In current practice, FTO is established through an opinion based on patent search that a course of action is...