We analyze the expected impact of the new Canada Health Transfer (CHT) on the capacity of Canadian provinces to provide universal Medicare coverage. We found the new CHT formula, recently redesigned by the federal government, fails to address the differing capacity of provinces to provide...

Debates about the size of government, which are often debates about what government should or should not do, need to be joined by a concern for the relative cost of government. Since 1981, the price in the public sector has grown faster than the price for GDP. We decompose the ratio between the...

The paper examines the application of the concept of economic efficiency to collective decision processes and public sector institutions. We show that the existence of transactions costs and of collective decision-making procedures requires a broader framework for judging policy processes and...

We compare the size and structure of the public sectors of Canada and the United States from 1929 to 2004 using national accounting and employment data. The challenge of defining the public sector for comparative purposes is explored and illustrated, especially with respect to the treatment of...

We draw attention to, and begin to consider the implications of, the severe restrictions on emigration by Canadians to the United States introduced under the US Immigration Act of 1965. These restrictions came into effect in 1968 and lasted until mobility began to increase to some extent under...