Tag Archives: growth
150 Years of Federal Consumption Taxation
In the run up to Canada Day and the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, here is another in a line of recent snapshots of the federal government – this time its consumption tax revenues. Why consumption taxes? Well, economists like to make the case for more emphasis on consumption taxation relative to income taxes, which […]
Urban GDP
Statistics Canada has released experimental estimates of gross domestic product for the period 2001 to 2009 for 33 census metropolitan areas. The results of course reinforce what we already know – that Canada’s economic activity is concentrated in its cities and half of our GDP is produced in just six cities – Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, […]
Physician Numbers Rising-Costs Stable For Now
CIHI has just released its latest report on physicians – Physicians in Canada 2013 – and the key findings can be summarized as follows: (1) For the 7th year in a row, the number of physicians in Canada increased, reaching 220 per 100,000 population in 2013. (2) In 2012–2013, total payments to physicians in Canada […]
Canada: One Hundred and Forty-Seven Years of Economic Growth
Well Canada Day is once again upon us – we now have 147 years of Confederation to celebrate– and what better way to celebrate than with a brief retrospective of economic performance as measured by per capita GDP. For your viewing pleasure, I present real per capita GDP in $2002 for each of the main […]
Can IKEA Stay Profitable?
As part of moving my daughter into her new abode last week, I had an experience with IKEA, which got me thinking about whether the giant furniture retailer can continue its high growth and profitability. Everyone is of course familiar with the basic approach used by this very successful company. IKEA provides innovative, stylish low […]
Provincial Debt Update
The 2012 Federal Fiscal Reference tables are out and the information on provincial net debt is interesting especially when the growth of net debt is considered.
Health Spending Update: Into the 21st Century
The OECD released its Health Data 2012 statistics several months ago and they are certainly worth a glance given that rising health spending is still a big international policy issue, and the capacity to pay has taken a recessionary hit during the first decade of the 21st century.
A Longer Term View of U.S. Public Debt
With the August 2nd deadline for raising the United States public debt ceiling looming, it might be useful to take a longer-term view on exactly how bad the US debt situation is at least with respect to the past.
Cities, Capital Cities and Economic Performance
It is the conventional wisdom that urban centers with their concentrations of human and physical capital and their dense social networks are engines of growth. One exception to this is can be the case where a dominant urban center by virtue of its institutional monopoly on a country or region’s economic life is able to […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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