{"id":2904,"date":"2019-03-18T04:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T08:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cpp.hec.ca\/en\/?p=2904"},"modified":"2022-02-23T11:16:53","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T16:16:53","slug":"productivite-et-prosperite-au-quebec-bilan-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cpp.hec.ca\/en\/productivite-et-prosperite-au-quebec-bilan-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Productivity and Prosperity in Quebec \u2013 2018 Overview"},"content":{"rendered":"

To mark a decade of research into the issue of productivity in Quebec, the Centre for Productivity and Prosperity \u2013 Walter J. Somers Foundation (CPP) is pleased to release the tenth edition of Productivity and Prosperity in Quebec \u2013 Overview<\/a>.<\/em> \u201cThis overview was originally intended to alert decision-makers to the challenge of productivity and its impact on Quebec\u2019s economic prosperity,\u201d explains CPP Director Robert Gagn\u00e9. \u201cBack then, there was serious cause for concern: after 30 years of particularly lethargic productivity growth, a wide gap had opened up in terms of economic prosperity between Quebec and the main Western economies. Since then the political discourse has evolved, but the same basic problem remains: because it hasn\u2019t improved its productivity, Quebec is still having trouble generating wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is that even today the findings of the 2018 Overview <\/em>are still cause for concern. For all practical purposes, labour productivity has flatlined over the past four years, posting average annual growth of barely 0.1%. In short, the new government faces a considerable challenge.<\/p>\n

Troubling findings, tangible consequences<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quebeckers have eventually had to pay for their economy\u2019s laggard growth. They have less money to spend and save than the residents of other provinces. With average per capita disposable income of $28,455\u00a0in 2017, Quebec now sits at the bottom of the heap, whereas barely 20 years ago the province outperformed the Canadian average.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople sometimes try to downplay the importance of disposable income, claiming that there is less income inequality in Quebec, or that we have a lower cost of living,\u201d says Jonathan Deslauriers, Assistant CPP Director. \u201cBut these arguments can\u2019t explain the gap between Quebec and the other provinces. For example, as compared with Ontario, there is less inequality in Quebec because the richest people here are not as wealthy as their Ontario counterparts, and not because the poorer people here are better off. Even when we adjust our calculations to reflect the cost of living in Quebec, the fact remains that without adequate economic prosperity, the vast majority of Quebec households have less money to spend and save.\u201d<\/p>\n

Real solutions possible<\/strong><\/p>\n

Based on ten years of studying this issue, the researchers have identified three areas to focus on in order to boost the province\u2019s productivity and improve its performance: invest in education, stimulate private investment and encourage innovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuebec has long lagged behind all the other provinces when it comes to public spending on education, and would do very well to boost its investment in human capital,\u201d suggests Robert Gagn\u00e9. \u201cWith barely 9% growth in real spending on education over the past ten years, the province clearly hasn\u2019t invested enough upstream to boost its workers\u2019 productivity. By investing wisely in education, the government could eliminate two major obstacles to Quebec\u2019s productivity: the high drop-out rate and the low university graduation rate, which currently\u00a0limits\u00a0the province\u2019s ability to innovate.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, to improve its innovation ability, Quebec would do well to invest more in research and development (R&D). In 2016, the province devoted $2,171\u00a0per job to R&D, substantially less than countries like Finland, Sweden and Denmark, which outspend Quebec by 90% on R&D. The researchers say that the relative weakness of private spending on R&D reflects a broader problem: generally speaking, businesses in Quebec do not invest much. \u201cWith private non-residential investment of $8,212\u00a0per job in 2017, Quebec compares poorly with the 20\u00a0OECD countries used for our comparisons year after year,\u201d notes the Director. \u201cFor instance, private investment in Finland was 1.7 times greater than in Quebec, and yet even that country was far from the top of this ranking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The solution lies with business <\/strong><\/p>\n

The researchers report that the relative weakness of investment in human capital, physical capital and R&D have eventually had an impact on the performance of Quebec firms. \u201cIn the late 90s, the productivity gap between firms in Quebec and Ontario was attributable essentially to a structural effect,\u201d explains Gagn\u00e9. \u201cIn other words, if Quebec’s economic structure had been identical to Ontario\u2019s at the time \u2013 i.e. if the distribution by industry of hours worked in Quebec had been identical to that in Ontario \u2013 Quebec\u2019s labour productivity would have been marginally higher than in its neighbouring province.\u201d<\/p>\n

But since then this effect has faded and less than 25% of the difference between the two provinces is attributable to their structures. \u201cBecause it was unable to make the necessary changes, Quebec is now faced with a pure productivity problem,\u201d concludes Gagn\u00e9. \u201cIf no action is taken to remedy this situation, the wealth gap between Quebec and other economies is bound to widen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

To read more : Deslauriers, Jonathan, Robert Gagn\u00e9 and Jonathan Par\u00e9, Productivity and Prosperity in Quebec \u2013 2018 Overview<\/a>, Centre for Productivity and Prosperity (CPP) \u2013 Walter J. Somers Foundation, HEC Montr\u00e9al, March 2019<\/p>\n<\/div>

Read the publication<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-productivity-and-prosperity-in-quebec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpp.hec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpp.hec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpp.hec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpp.hec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpp.hec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2904"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cpp.hec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3684,"href":"https:\/\/cpp.hec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904\/revisions\/3684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpp.hec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpp.hec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpp.hec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpp.hec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}