This paper evaluates the importance of innovation spending for understanding Canada-U.S. firm size and productivity differences. A standard model of heterogenous producers, amended to include a channel for innovation, is calibrated to the U.S. to serve as a benchmark. Canadian specific features...

Plant-level innovation is introduced into an heterogeneous plant setting so that productivity dynamics are endogenous. When policy distortions are positively correlated with plant productivity, I argue that accounting for plant innovation is important for understanding TFP differences across...