Productivity drivers in British Columbia

First, it provides a brief overview of the productivity situation and the state of the drivers of productivity in British Columbia. [...] The situation in British Columbia is similar and, in some respects, even worse because the province has significantly benefited from the increase in commodity prices and the ensuing resurgence of mining in the province (Stueck, 2008) but has generally been performing below the Canadian average in terms of labour productivity. [...] The effect of British Columbia’s industrial structure, with employment more concentrated in lower productivity industries than is the case in the rest of Canada, will be the subject of discussion later in the paper. [...] The second is investment in capital goods, which determines the size of the capital stock and hence the amount of machinery and equipment and structures available to each worker and firm. [...] Indeed, the differences in industrial structures between provinces and countries sometimes explains an important part of the differences in economic growth and thus begs the question of whether or not public policies are creating the right incentives to ensure the development of dynamic industries and the decline of least dynamic industries.