Despite the popularity of price cap regulation in practice, the economic literature provides relatively little guidance on how to determine the X factor, which is the rate at which inflation -adjusted output prices must fall under price cap plans. We review the standard principles that inform...

Despite the popularity of price cap regulation in practice, the economic literature provides relatively little guidance on how to determine the X factor, which is the rate at which inflation -adjusted output prices must fall under price cap plans. We review the standard principles that inform...

This is the first paper to directly measure and decompose total factor productivity growth (TFPG) for the Canadian life insurance industry. TFPG averaged 1.0 percent per year over the period from 1979 to 1989, thereby outperforming many manufacturing industries. The rate of TFPG was 0.2 percent...

The purpose of this paper is to estimate a model incorporating noncompetitive behaviour in product and factor markets, In addition, capital accumulation is subject to adjustment costs so that firms are not constrained to be in long-run equilibrium. The model is applied to two major Canadian...

This paper develops a model of the production of life insurance services. The focus is on price setting ability and the cost advantages from size and diversity. The model characterizes insurers decisions on the face value and number of policies and the number of insurance lines. The model is...

In this article, Jeffrey I. Bernstein of Carleton University, Richard G. Harris from Simon Fraser University, and Andrew Sharpe from the Centre for the Study of Living Standards provide a comprehensive analysis of the widening of the Canada-US manufacturing productivity gap. Since 1994, labour...

This article by Jeffrey I. Bernstein of Carleton University and the NBER discusses the use of total factor productivity for price setting in regulated industries. He argues that the longterm, industry-wide productivity experience that is not subject to strategic manipulation by regulated firms...

Canadian food processing is an important manufacturing industry, accounting for 13 percent of shipments. By its nature food processing depends on infrastructure capital. Our objective is to estimate infrastructure’s effects on input requirements, cost and productivity. The increase in capital...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the determinants of capital durability and utilization and their interdependence with investment decisions. The approach is based on the view that the flow of undepreciated capital is an output to be used in future production. At each date capital and...

In this paper we estimate a model of production and investment based on the theory of dynamic duality and are particularly Interested in the effects of R&D spillovers and in calculating the social and private rates of return. We identify and estimate three effects associated with the...