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Can the Canada-U.S. ICT Gap be a Measurement Issue?

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  • Andrew Sharpe
  • Vikram Rai

Abstract

In 2011, business sector investment per worker in information and communications technology (ICT) in Canada was only 57.8 per cent of the U.S. level, indicating an ICT investment per worker gap of 42.2 percentage points. Numerous explanations have been advanced to explain this gap, one of which is that the ICT investment data from Statistics Canada and the Bureau of Economic Analysis are not strictly comparable. The primary focus of this report is to analyze that hypothesis. We compare the methodology used to measure ICT investment in Canada and the United States and find that issues related to measurement account for approximately 4 percentage points (10 per cent) of the gap. Although software investment has been responsible for 90 per cent of the gap in recent years, seven out of 17 industries in Canada actually had greater investment per worker levels than the United States in both total ICT and software. A small number of ICT-intensive industries has been responsible for a substantial part of the gap. In particular, information and cultural industries accounted for 39.1 per cent of the total gap. This supports the conclusion that the Canada-U.S. ICT investment per worker gap is largely the result of industry-specific factors which affect software investment.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Sharpe & Vikram Rai, 2013. "Can the Canada-U.S. ICT Gap be a Measurement Issue?," CSLS Research Reports 2013-03, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    • Handle: RePEc:sls:resrep:1303
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    File URL: http://www.csls.ca/reports/csls2013-03.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Baldwin, John R. Macdonald, Ryan, 2009. "PPPs: Purchasing Power or Producing Power Parities?," Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series 2009058e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    2. Atkinson, A. B. & Stiglitz, J. E., 1976. "The design of tax structure: Direct versus indirect taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1-2), pages 55-75.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jasmin Thomas, 2016. "New Evidence on the Canada-U.S. ICT Investment Gap, 1976-2014 Selected OECD Countries, 1986-2013," CSLS Research Reports 2016-17, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    2. Don Drummond & Evan Capeluck & Matthew Calver, 2015. "The Key Challenge for Canadian Public Policy: Generating Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth," CSLS Research Reports 2015-11, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    3. Jasmin Thomas, 2016. "Explaining Industry Differences in IT Investment Per Worker Between Canada and the United States, 2002-2013," CSLS Research Reports 2016-01, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.

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