IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sls/resrep/1617.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

New Evidence on the Canada-U.S. ICT Investment Gap, 1976-2014 Selected OECD Countries, 1986-2013

Author

Listed:
  • Jasmin Thomas

Abstract

Productivity growth results in part from investment in information and communications technologies (ICT). To better understand Canada’s poor productivity growth relative to the United States since 2000, this report provides a detailed examination of ICT investment trends in the two countries. The report finds that real ICT investment in the total economy in Canada has yet to recover from the 2008-2009 recession, while it has not suffered the same fate south of the border. Between 2008 and 2014 real ICT investment in Canada fell 1.0 per cent per year, compared to a 2.9 per cent per year increase in the United States. The gap was even greater for real ICT investment per job, down 1.8 per cent per year in Canada versus a 2.8 per cent annual increase in the United States. The weaker ICT investment growth in Canada resulted in a large increase in the Canada-US ICT investment gap from 31.6 percentage points to 43.7 points, as nominal ICT investment per job fell from 68.4 per cent of the US level in 2008, the highest value ever achieved, to 56.3 per cent in 2014.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:sls:resrep:1617
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.csls.ca/reports/csls2016-17.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vikram Rai & Andrew Sharpe, 2013. "Can the Canada-U.S. ICT Investment Gap be a Measurement Issue?," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 26, pages 63-85, Fall.
    2. Andrew Sharpe, 2014. "What Explains the Canada-U.S. Software Investment Intensity Gap?," CSLS Research Reports 2014-04, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    3. Nadim Ahmad & Paul Schreyer, 2016. "Are GDP and Productivity Up to the Challenges of the Digital Economy?," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 30, pages 4-27, Spring.
    4. Andrew Sharpe, 2006. "The Relationship between ICT Investment and Productivity in the Canadian Economy: A Review of the Evidence," CSLS Research Reports 2006-05, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Jasmin Thomas, 2015. "An Analysis of the Canada-U.S. ICT Investment Gap: An Update to 2013," CSLS Research Reports 2015-01, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    8. Andrew Sharpe & Jean-François Arsenault, 2008. "ICT Investment and Productivity: A Provincial Perspective," CSLS Research Reports 2008-06, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    9. Andrew Sharpe, 2005. "What Explains the Canada-US ICT Investment Gap?," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 11, pages 21-38, Fall.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. 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.
    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. Andrew Sharpe, 2014. "What Explains the Canada-U.S. Software Investment Intensity Gap?," CSLS Research Reports 2014-04, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    4. Vikram Rai & Andrew Sharpe, 2013. "Can the Canada-U.S. ICT Investment Gap be a Measurement Issue?," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 26, pages 63-85, Fall.
    5. Wulong Gu, 2018. "Accounting for Slower Productivity Growth in the Canadian Business Sector after 2000: The Role of Capital Measurement Issues," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 34, pages 21-39, Spring.
    6. Richard Dion & Robert Fay, 2008. "Understanding Productivity: A Review of Recent Technical Research," Discussion Papers 08-3, Bank of Canada.
    7. Guoge Yang & Feng Deng & Yifei Wang & Xianhong Xiang, 2022. "Digital Paradox: Platform Economy and High-Quality Economic Development—New Evidence from Provincial Panel Data in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-26, February.
    8. Yuan, Shengjun & Musibau, Hammed Oluwaseyi & Genç, Sema Yılmaz & Shaheen, Riffat & Ameen, Anam & Tan, Zhixiong, 2021. "Digitalization of economy is the key factor behind fourth industrial revolution: How G7 countries are overcoming with the financing issues?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    9. James Fudurich & Lena Suchanek & Lise Pichette, 2021. "Adoption of digital technologies: Insights from a global survey initiative," Discussion Papers 2021-7, Bank of Canada.
    10. Tou, Yuji & Watanabe, Chihiro & Moriya, Kuniko & Neittaanmäki, Pekka, 2019. "Harnessing soft innovation resources leads to neo open innovation," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    11. Andrew Agopsowicz & Dany Brouillette & Shutao Cao & Natalia Kyui & Pierre St-Amant, 2016. "April 2016 Annual Reassessment of Potential Output in Canada," Staff Analytical Notes 16-4, Bank of Canada.
    12. Nicholas Crafts, 2017. "Is Slow Economic Growth the ‘New Normal’ for Europe?," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 45(3), pages 283-297, September.
    13. Ian Goldin & Pantelis Koutroumpis & François Lafond & Julian Winkler, 2024. "Why Is Productivity Slowing Down?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 196-268, March.
    14. Richard Pomfret, 2020. "Global Production Networks, New Trade Technologies and the Challenge for International Institutions," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 55(1), pages 21-41, February.
    15. Gilbert Cette & Aurélien Devillard & Vincenzo Spiezia, 2022. "Growth Factors in Developed Countries: A 1960–2019 Growth Accounting Decomposition," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 64(2), pages 159-185, June.
    16. Hippolyte d'Albis & Julien Navaux & Jacques Pelletan & Francois Charles Wolff, 2019. "Economic growth and household production in France (1985-2010) [Croissance économique et production domestique en France (1985-2010)]," PSE Working Papers halshs-02355123, HAL.
    17. Schubert, Torben & Ashouri, Sajad & Deschryvere, Matthias & Jäger, Angela & Visentin, Fabiana & Cunningham, Scott & Hajikhani, Arash & Pukelis, Lukas & Suominen, Arho, 2023. "The role of product digitization for productivity," MERIT Working Papers 2023-004, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    18. David M. Byrne, 2022. "The Digital Economy and Productivity," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2022-038, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    19. Andrew Sharpe & John Tsang, 2019. "A Detailed Analysis of Newfoundland and Labrador's Productivity Performance, 1997-2018," CSLS Research Reports 2019-06, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    20. Andrew Sharpe & Etienne Grand'Maison, 2013. "A Detailed Analysis of Newfoundland and Labrador's Productivity Performance, 1997-2010: The Impact of the Oil Boom," CSLS Research Reports 2013-05, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Investment; Information and Communication Technology; Information Technology; ICT; IT; Productivity; Industries; Professional Services; Cultural Industries; Canada; U.S.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General
    • L70 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - General
    • L80 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - General
    • L90 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - General
    • N72 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • N32 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • N12 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • O51 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sls:resrep:1617. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CSLS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cslssca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.