The UK economy has undergone significant market reforms over the last two decades. A key question for productivity researchers is the impact of these reforms on productivity growth. In this article, Richard B. Freeman of the London School of Economics, Harvard University and the NBER and David...

In this article, Jeffrey I. Bernstein of Carleton University, Richard G. Harris from Simon Fraser University, and Andrew Sharpe from the Centre for the Study of Living Standards provide a comprehensive analysis of the widening of the Canada-US manufacturing productivity gap. Since 1994, labour...

The purpose of this report is to shed light on the dynamics and determinants of productivity growth in nine selected natural resource industries and in the overall natural resource sector in Canada. This report provides a concise review of the findings of a detailed analysis undertaken by the...

The objectives of this report are to examine the characteristics of manufacturing in Atlantic Canada and to shed light on the factors behind the productivity gap between Atlantic Canada and Canada in the context of the manufacturing sector. A number of possible factors contributing to the...

In this article, Someshwar Rao, Jiamin Tang and Weimin Wang of Industry Canada examine the impact of capital accumulation on Canada's recent productivity record. A key finding is that the widening of the Canada-U.S. labour productivity gap in both the business sector and in manufacturing in the...

This paper attempts to delineate the mechanisms that link social capital and economic development. I show that social capital can produce two kinds of trust, both of which can reduce transaction costs. It is important to keep these two sources of trust apart, since development policies utilizing...

This paper provides some empirical evidence and a theory of the relationship between residual wage inequality and the increasing dispersion of capital/labor ratios across firms. I document the increasing variance of capital/labor ratios across firms in the US labor market using Compustat data. I...

We study the implications of product and labor market imperfections for equilibrium unemployment under both exogenous and endogenous capital intensity. With endogenous capital intensity, stronger labor market imperfections always increase equilibrium unemployment. The relationship between the...