The issue of productivity and the related issue of innovation continue to be high on the public policy agenda. Policymakers are particularly interested in the social aspects of productivity. In The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress, 2002, the second issue of a new annual, authors examine the two-way linkages between productivity and various measures of social progress in Canada. Papers in the volume fall into two main themes: the effects of productivity on social progress indicators and the social determinants of productivity.
Keith Banting is Stauffer-Dunning Professor of Policy Studies and director of the School of Policy Studies, Queen's University. Andrew Sharpe is executive director of the Centre for the Study of Living Standards in Ottawa. France St-Hilaire is recently retired after a 30-year career at the Institute for Research on Public Policy.