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Canada: Life beyond the Looking Glass

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  • John F. Helliwell

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.

Suggested Citation

  • John F. Helliwell, 2001. "Canada: Life beyond the Looking Glass," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 107-124, Winter.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:15:y:2001:i:1:p:107-124
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.15.1.107
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    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.15.1.107
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Antonie, Luiza & Inwood, Kris & Minns, Chris & Summerfield, Fraser, 2022. "Intergenerational Mobility in a Mid-Atlantic Economy: Canada, 1871–1901," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(4), pages 1003-1029, December.
    2. Antonie, Luiza & Inwood, Kris & Minns, Chris & Summerfield, Fraser, 2021. "Intergenerational mobility in a mid-Atlantic economy: Canada, 1871-1901," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108411, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Steven Globerman, 2004. "Regional Economic Integration: The Canada-U.S. Experience," International Trade 0406003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Morley Gunderson, 2001. "North American Economic Integration and Globalization," The State of Economics in Canada: Festschrift in Honour of David Slater, in: Patrick Grady & Andrew Sharpe (ed.),The State of Economics in Canada: Festschrift in Honour of David Slater, pages 355-377, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    5. Marc Fox, 2003. "Medical student indebtedness and the propensity to enter academic medicine," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(2), pages 101-112, February.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O51 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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