The federal and provincial governments spend almost half a billion dollars a year providing tax incentives to encourage the production of films, videos and television programs in Canada by foreign firms. Although the subsidies are successful in achieving their stated objective of increasing...

The federal government implemented a new expenditure management system in 2007. Under the new system, departments are required to review programs on a four-year cycle to determine if they are aligned with federal responsibilities and priorities, if they are efficiently delivered and if they are...

There is a sound public policy case for subsidizing R&D. When firms perform R&D, they create knowledge that allows them to introduce new products, improve existing goods and services or reduce production costs. However, some of the knowledge created inevitably leaks out or spills over to other...

The key argument in favour of an Intellectual Property (IP) Box, which taxes the income generated from intellectual property at a special low rate, is that it defends against poaching of highly mobile IP income by low-tax jurisdictions, particularly tax havens. The standard response to this...

Small business dynamism is a feature of an SME sector that contributes to overall productivity growth, not an end in itself. Such dynamism increases productivity growth by reallocating resources towards more productive firms and strengthening the diffusion of new technologies. Small business...

In this article, John Lester describes the federal tax expenditures database developed as part of the Finances of the Nation data portal. He also uses the database to analyze trends in federal tax expenditures over a 21-year period ending in 2019 and to identify the beneficiaries and the...

Business investment in research and development (R&D) makes a key contribution to rising living standards. Firms undertaking the R&D can reduce production costs and introduce new products that provide benefits to consumers that are not fully captured in selling prices. Further, it is very...