The subject of tax interactions, such as tax competition, has become pervasive in government discussions and in the media in Canada over the past few years. These interactions may become more widespread as provinces gain greater flexibility in personal income taxes through a tax-on-income system...

Using a pseudo-panel of cohort data and a straightforward decomposition of consumption, we address the question of whether Canadians are currently able to meet the goals set out in Canada’s retirement income system, and whether they are likely to meet them in the future. Specifically, do...

This paper develops a two-sector (final goods and human capital) general equilibrium endogenous growth model with government spending financed by the three distorting taxes. Endogenous labour-leisure choice is considered. The growth is driven by physical and human capital accumulation as well as...

This paper looks at the reasons for Canada’s low business research and development (R&D) intensity. R&D performance across OECD countries is examined, and a detailed decomposition is undertaken of differences between Canadian and U.S. R&D levels across industries. Canada’s low aggregate R&D...

Medium-term (five-year) fiscal planning is complicated by uncertainty surrounding projections of real GDP. The slowdown in growth rate in the late 1970s and the recent upsurge in growth during the late 1990s provide lessons on how unanticipated movements in underlying trends can have a major...

The objective of this paper is twofold. First, we introduce the importance of utilising real-time data for macroeconomic analysis by reviewing the relevant literature on real-time analysis and by looking at real-time output data sets for Canada and the US. Although the use of real-time data has...

A good understanding of the theories of the interest rate term structure is important when elaborating a debt management strategy and, in particular, when choosing the maturity structure of the public debt. “Best practises” of debt management suggest the use of modern theories of the term...