Journal of Economic Perspectives
ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)
Canada: Life beyond the Looking Glass
Journal of Economic Perspectives
vol. 15,
no. 1, Winter 2001
(pp. 107–124)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
Canada's population, a tenth that of the United States, is perched close to the U.S. northern border, tightly but asymmetrically tied to U.S. information networks. However, trade, capital and population mobility remains an order of magnitude tighter among provinces than between provinces and states. This separating effect of the national border is not primarily due to barriers, but to networks of contacts, trust and institutions that make it efficient to concentrate economic activity within national borders. This separation combines with quite different histories to explain why Canadian economic, social, education and health care policies remain distinct from U.S. policies, often closer to those in Northern Europe.Citation
Helliwell, John, F. 2001. "Canada: Life beyond the Looking Glass." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15 (1): 107–124. DOI: 10.1257/jep.15.1.107JEL Classification
- O51 Economywide Country Studies: U.S.; Canada
- I11 Analysis of Health Care Markets
- E24 Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital
- H20 Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General
- J61 Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
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