The Research On Regional Economic Growth Disparities Of Canada

Canada has 998 square kilometers land, and is divided into ten provinces which are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador. Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan, and three territories, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon. The economics of those ten provinces locating close to the central part of North America is highly developed, dominating the country's economy. While the rest three territories with population only about 0.33% of the total population and 0.48% in GDP (year 2014) spread in the Arctic Circle play little roles in the country's economic activities. Therefore, they will not be included in this study and we will only focus on the ten provinces. The discussion about regional disparities will also be only related to those ten provinces in terms.Canada is one of the largest countries in the world and is one of the Group of Seven (G7) countries, the seven major advanced economics in the world today. With gross domestic product (GDP) ranking 10th in the world (2015), its main industries include energy, machinery manufacturing, agriculture, information industry and aerospace industries which are mainly distributed in the strips bordering United States and form different development patterns. Since the economic crisis in 2008, Canada is the first country to pull out and recover from the crisis with the top growth in GDP among the developed countries. However, the development of the economy is still slow and the export-oriented industries are almost destroyed, especially including machinery manufacturing, agricultural industries. In particular, with the global oil prices continuing maintaining a low level since year 2014, the related industries relied on energy exports and the regional economics have been hit heavily which have shown profound impacts to the government fiscal balances. Under this background, the regional economic disparity is becoming more and more obvious. Overall, although the existence of regional economic disparities within a certain scope looks reasonable, but with expand of the regional economic disparity becoming big and big, the rich group and poor group are separated further and further. This apparently is not good for social stability and will give a negative impact on the economy.Many researches regarding Canada's regional economic disparity were mostly published before 2008. Especially there are few researches focusing on the new economy crisis situations since 2008. In this paper we will use not only theoretical and empirical approaches but also the econometric theories to analyze the development trend of regional economic disparity in Canada. We will also apply the same approach to focus on the feasibility of the corresponding countermeasures and strategies suggested by Canadian government, in order to predict the trends of the regional economic disparity and to narrow the gap in regional economy and, finally to promote the development of Canada's economy and to provide relevant reference experience for other countries.The study is organized into eight chapters to discuss the issues with every aspects.In chapter 1,we outline the background of the study, the research value, the methods and the goals. We also explain the theory trends about the gap of regional economy, regional economy in Canada and Canada regional economic disparity. And finally we point out the research innovation and deficiency.Chapter 2 is the related theoretical part. First we introduce the related concepts in respect of the regional economic. Second we explains the meaning of regional economic disparity and analyze the causes of the regional economic disparity. Then we states the main theory of regional economic disparity. Finally we explain the definition of economic convergence and determine the test method for the economic convergence. The aim of this part is to setup basic theoretical foundation for further research.Chapter 3 introduces the development process and the current status about Canadian economy. First we describe the general situation in each region of Canada. Then we devote to the studies of Canada's regional economic development process. Finally we analyze the current status of Canada's regional economic disparity.Chapter 4 focuses on the combination of Canadian provincial economic development data and current situation of the development of national economy. First we conduct descriptive analysis about Canada regional economy disparity by using absolute indicators and relative indicators. Then we utilize EVIEWS8.0 software to do a ? test to determine whether the Canada regional economy disparity is convergence or divergence in order to ensure the accuracy of the analysis results.In Chapter 5 we perform the beta convergence and club convergence empirical analysis for Canada's regional economic disparity by using EVIEWS8.0 software according to the relevant econometric and regional economic theory. In this chapter first we conduct the absolute beta convergence analysis and then the relative beta convergence analysis through the established two models; second, the club convergence by analyzing the trend of convergence for oil producing provinces, non-oil producing provinces and national respectively. Finally, we summarize our findings.Chapter 6 analyzes the influence factors of regional economic gap of Canada.In chapter 7 we mainly discuss the policy strategies which have been implemented by Canadian government to narrow the regional economic disparities. The Canadian government setup different macroscopic policy for regional economic development to meet the demand of different times and setup regional economic development agencies to complete the specific implementation of the regional economic policy.Chapter 8 summarizes those policies that Canadian government setup to narrow the gap between regional economics and lessons worth to learne. In addition, we shared the Canadian experiences in devolution, playing a dual role for the development, improving local organizations" importance, setting up supported project to carry out the diversity of investment and let the performance evaluation to be regulated and transparent.