Productivity and Prosperity in the Information Age: A Canada-U.S. Comparison

Abstract

This paper examines three sets of issues: a) the extent to which information technology has contributed to Canada’s productivity growth; b) how Canada's productivity performance compared to the U.S. and c) what was the impact of the recent Canadian productivity revival on prosperity. The study concludes that, in the late 1990s, Canada's multifactor productivity performance compared favourably to the U.S., information technology user industries contributed to a large extent to Canada's productivity revival and Canada's standard of living improved significantly primarily because of the increase in the labour utilization rate.

Keywords: productivity, information technology, labour productivity

JEL Classification: D24, J24, O47, O3