Canada isn’t short on talent, research or ideas. Yet living standards are under pressure, and productivity growth has slowed. What is really holding the economy back?
In this extended episode, host Marwa Abdou brings together two leading economists for a rare back-to-back look at the productivity puzzle from both a macroeconomic and innovation perspective.
Paul Beaudry, Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics and former Bank of Canada Deputy Governor, reframes productivity as a measure of value, not effort, and challenges the assumption that more education and labour force growth automatically translate into stronger outcomes. Dan Breznitz, Co-Director of the University of Toronto’s Innovation Policy Lab, pushes the conversation further, arguing that invention alone does not create prosperity. What matters is whether economies build the capacity to scale ideas, diffuse technology and embed innovation inside real firms.
Their insights point to a deeper tension: Canada’s challenge may not be a lack of ambition but a gap between what the country knows how to produce and what it is structured to use. It’s a timely conversation about economic design, competitiveness and the choices that could determine whether Canada pulls ahead or stands still.
Links:
- Paul Beaudry – Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia
- Dan Breznitz - Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto
- Demographics and recent productivity performance: insights from cross-country comparisons by Paul Beaudry, David A. Green, Fabrice Collard
- The Great Reversal in the Demand for Skill and Cognitive Tasks by Paul Beaudry, David A. Green, Benjamin M. Sand
- Innovation in Real Places: Strategies for Prosperity in an Unforgiving World by Dan Breznitz
- Canada’s Productivity Gap Is a Vulnerability We Must Fix - Business Data Lab