Over the coming two decades people are likely to stay in the workforce much longer – by about five years. There will be a strong trend towards later retirement as a result of social and economic pressures, without any policy action. The results will be largely positive and should therefore be...

Canada’s energy sector, and the Canadian economy, would benefit from a renewed focus on pipeline review policy and regulation. Recent cases, including the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, the Keystone XL, and the Northern Gateway pipeline, highlight current challenges and the need for an improved...

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) could improve its development aid impact by focusing on basic education. In the report, the author documents the importance of universal literacy in enabling countries to escape from extreme levels of poverty and identifies specific types of...

There are little-acknowledged yet striking inequities built into the payout formulas of defined-benefit (DB) pension plans, which are typically provided to government employees across Canada. An analysis of representative DB plans shows they systematically transfer income away from groups of...

Financial instruments indexed to the general price level are of great potential use to borrowers and lenders alike. But up until recently, they have been relatively scarce – in part because private borrowers dislike offering protection against inflation that they do not control. Since the...

In late 2011, Canada indicated it wanted to join negotiations underway among nine countries towards a new Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement on trade. It is important for Canada to be at the table in these talks, which currently involve economies comprising 28 percent of world GDP. There...

Since the 2008/09 financial crisis, the international regulatory community has taken steps to reduce the probability of future significant financial instability. So far, the emphasis has been on tougher capital and liquidity regulations for banks and greater transparency for financial products,...

The Bank of Canada needs a better inflation indicator that is more sensitive to swings in house prices than the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The author points out that the CPI has not usefully reflected the rapid run-up in housing prices in recent years. He proposes a new official inflation...

To revitalize its flagging trade and productivity performance, Canada needs to adapt its international trade and investment policies to a world of value chains, evolving trade and investment patterns, and deepening global integration. To be more competitive in this context, Canada needs to wean...

The monetary policy arrangement in Canada has proven very successful. Despite many and varied economic shocks, the Bank of Canada has established the necessary conditions under which the annual rate of inflation, as measured by the rate of change of the Consumer Price Index, has remained very...