One of the central problems in managing technological change and maintaining a competitive advantage in business is improving the skills of the workforce through investment in human capital and a variety of training practices. This paper explores the evidence on the impact of training investment on productivity in 14 Canadian industries from 1999…

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the link between age and proficiency in information-processing skills, based on information drawn from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). The data reveal significant age-related differences in proficiencies, strongly suggesting that proficiency tends to "naturally" decline with age. Age…

Over the past three decades, educators have faced an increasing variety of reform proposals that can best be contextualized as efforts to commodify and privatize public education. While supporters of market-based reforms attempt to place these proposals within education theory, they are in reality firmly entrenched in neoliberal economic theory.…

This study identifies clusters of U.S. and Canadian metropolitan areas with similar knowledge traits. These groups--ranging from Making Regions, characterized by knowledge about manufacturing, to Thinking Regions, noted for knowledge about the arts, humanities, information technology, and commerce--can be used by analysts and policymakers for the…

Canada weathered the global economic crisis well, mainly reflecting sustained growth in domestic pending, and the economy is continuing to grow despite the persistence of international turbulence, most recently stemming from the euro zone sovereign debt crisis. In Canada's case, several factors are acting in its favour. Federal fiscal plans are…

Examines education's influences on Canada's employment, wages, and industrial production, using 1990 cross-sectional, provincially grouped statistical data. Workers disaggregated by educational attainment are substitutes for one another. Capital and all labor groups disaggregated by education are complements. Earnings differentials between better-…

This research discusses the relationship between the migration of skilled professional and managerial workers from Canada to the United States, the so called "brain drain," and seeks to determine if and how the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (F.T.A.) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) may have affected bilateral flows…

This report documents the central role of the college-educated workforce in improving labour productivity across the economy and supporting an innovation culture in the workplace. It describes critical "enabling occupations" that play a key role in allowing companies to build a culture of innovation in the workplace which they need if…

Technological change and other innovations affect the way Canadians work. These changes demand increasingly higher levels of literacy for today and for the future. Basic skills are not enough. A low level of schooling is associated with higher unemployment. People who invest in their own higher education are likely to reap the reward of higher…

Attempts to explain sex-related wage differentials generally rely on the human capital and segmentation labor market theories. The human capital theory explains individuals' position in the labor market primarily in terms of factors determining their productivity, whereas segmentation theory focuses on differences among jobs as determinants of the…