Martin Prosperity Insights

Food Deserts and Priority Neighbourhoods in Toronto

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The past decade has seen growing concern regarding the state of food security and nutrition in
many North American communities. Food security refers to the availability of food in an area and
an individual’s access to it. While the benefits of a healthy diet on an individual’s quality of life and general health are becoming widely recognized, basic access to quality and affordable food remains a challenge for a growing number of communities. Neighbourhoods that do not have
access to good quality and affordable food are labeled as “Food Deserts”. These neighbourhoods
are often considered to be socially-distressed, characterized by low average household incomes.
If policy makers wish to improve the health, productivity and general prosperity of communities
within their jurisdictions, addressing the existence of food deserts is an important first step
forward.p. Continue Reading »

Food Deserts, Enterprise Communities and Empowerment Zones in Chicago

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Releasing Constraints: The Impacts of Increased Accessibility on Ontario’s Economy

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In 2005, the Ontario Legislature passed the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act to improve accessibility across the province. The disability community saw the legislation as a milestone in the government’s commitment to creating a level playing field for all Ontarians. But many businesses and municipalities across the province responded with skepticism, believing the act would result in increased costs and result in few benefits. However, a new study by the
Martin Prosperity Institute, the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity and the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, titled Releasing Constraints: Projecting the Economic Impacts of Increased Accessibility in Ontario, finds that improving inclusivity and accessibility in Ontario provides both economic opportunity and benefits. The report examines the potential economic impacts of increased accessibility at three scales: individuals, markets, and society.p. Continue Reading »

Occupations Draw on Three Types of Skills

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The Martin Prosperity Institute has developed some new measures of the elements of occupations that draw on workers’ knowledge and creativity. In this and future issues of Martin Prosperity Insights the MPI will share some of these results.p. Continue Reading »

High Speeds, High Costs, Hidden Benefits: A Broader Perspective on High-Speed Rail

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Opponents of high-speed rail have a common thread in their reasoning. Trains are fast and enjoyable to ride, they say, but when scrutinized by rigorous cost-benefit analysis their high cost simply cannot be justified. Typical analysis considers benefits like reduced travel times, reduced congestion, and reduced pollution. We make a case that it should also consider economy-expanding effects like expansion of the labour pool and job market, and extension of the effects of major infrastructure across a broader region.p. Continue Reading »

Santa's Toy Shoppe in the Creative Age

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

MPI researchers recently completed a comprehensive investigation of the operations of Santa’s Toy Shoppe, Inc. (STS). Located at the North Pole (postal code H-0-H-0-H-0), STS faces tremendous production challenges: their demand keeps growing each year with the world’s population, the complicated nature of some toys require long production times, they lack foreknowledge of the “must have” toy of the season (their collection of shopping mall “field agents” helps tremendously with collecting advance information on this), and they need to meet a very definite completion date.p. Continue Reading »

Supersized and Precarious: The Service Class in Canada

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Today, more Canadians are employed in service work than any other type of work. Current research by the Martin Prosperity Institute highlights the especially precarious nature of service work in Canada. Precarious occupations are those with limited job security, few employment benefits, a lack of control over the labour process, and very low wages. Service class work is characterized by each of these forms of precariousness.p. Continue Reading »

The Great Musical North

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

While the public perception exists that Canada is a hot spot for music and musicians, a comparison with the global leader in music production – the United States – helps us to separate perception from reality. We find that Canada has considerably greater per capita musical activity than the United States in terms of record labels, recording studios, and licensing houses. But the United States has much higher-earning businesses that are more heavily clustered in fewer places – especially Nashville, Los Angeles, and to a lesser extent, New York.p. Continue Reading »

Cities and CO2 - Bigger is Better

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

New research from our affiliate José Lobo and his colleagues indicates that environmental protection need not come at the expense of economic growth, and vice versa. With each increase of 1% in city population, growth in carbon emissions is 0.92%. In other words, as population increases, CO₂ emissions per capita drop. The relationship with economic output is even more significant: a 1% increase corresponds with only a 0.79% increase in carbon emissions.p. Continue Reading »

Creativity in the Rural Economy: Opportunities in Rural Areas & Smaller Centres

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Urban centres attract lots of attention from researchers and policy-makers interested in creative jobs and creative industries. But the potential of smaller centres and rural areas should not be overlooked. Job growth in rural Ontario in the decade between 1996 and 2006 was led by far by creative class workers at 22% – ahead of the working class at 13%, the service class at 9% and the agricultural and resource class, where the number of jobs actually fell by 20%.p. Continue Reading »

Inside the Creative Class: A Closer Look at U.S. Unemployment Rates

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The effects of an economic downturn are felt unequally by different groups. Those in creative class occupations – high-autonomy occupations where workers are paid to think such as artists, senior managers, doctors, and architects – experience a much lower rate of unemployment than other workers in both good times and bad. Our time series analysis of United States labour data finds that while some sub-groups of the creative class exhibit consistently higher unemployment, all of them typically outperform the national unemployment rate.p. Continue Reading »

Unemployment on the rise: Who’s hit most by the recession?

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the U.S. economy has shed 7.2 million jobs according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The U.S. unemployment rate has more than doubled since June 2007, from 4.6 to 9.5 percent. But what’s also clear is that the economic pain from the downturn is spread unequally.p. Continue Reading »

Head Office Clustering in the Mega-Regions

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Economists and geographers have long recognized the social and economic importance of cities, metropolitan areas, and other “sub-national” divisions. However, some are now realizing that a new and broader perspective on urban agglomeration helps us to understand productivity potential, employment growth, consumption patterns and innovation activity.p. Continue Reading »

Ottawa, Guelph and Victoria Are Among Canada’s Most Livable Cities

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Canada’s largest cities often top international “best of” lists. Vancouver was called the most livable city in the world by the Economist magazine, while Toronto was ranked the world’s 15th best place to live by AskMen.com, and Montreal’s “City Brand” was Ranked 13th. But Canada’s smaller cities should not be overlooked, according to new livability rankings from the Martin Prosperity Institute. Ottawa, Guelph, and Victoria compete with bigger cities in terms of livability, and have joined larger centers among the country’s most livable places.p. Continue Reading »

Leaders and Laggards of Ontario: How Our Metro Regions Stack Up

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Which of Ontario’s cities are better prepared for the profound transformation into the creative age?p. Continue Reading »

Why You Can't Get a Pizza Delivered in Stockholm

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Traditional research on the economic organization of countries and regions has focused only on industry; however, industrial analysis of the past neglects the role of human capital in clusters by focusing only on the demand side of the equation. Researchers Karen King, Charlotta Mellander and Kevin Stolarick instead bring the supply side to life as they dig deeper into occupations within industries.p. Continue Reading »

The Rise of the Service Class

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

A central theme of our work at the Martin Prosperity Institute is around the changing nature of our economy and the shift over time to a workforce that requires more creative skill than has been previously demanded. We speak often about the importance of the creative class in regional economic development, but what about the contributions from the other occupational groups? Especially those working as low wage service workers in the highly routinized occupations of the service class?p. Continue Reading »

Recent Immigrants are the Most Educated and Yet Underemployed in the Canadian Labour Force

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Every year over 200,000 immigrants move to Canada, many of them in search of economic
opportunity. But is there actual opportunity to be found? It seems that for every story of a recent immigrant who struck it big in Canada, there is a story of an Indian engineer who must work as a cab driver, or a Chinese surgeon that cannot obtain credentials. Analysis of recently released 2006 data, confirms that educated immigrants are underemployed in the Canadian labour force.p. Continue Reading »

Inside Canada’s Black Box of Regional Development

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Creative Class / Human Capital / Income / Service Diversity / Technology / Tolerance / University

What do these terms have in common and how do they contribute to regional prosperity? These terms are often studied independently; however, a closer look reveals that they are all interconnected and form an economic ecosystem that facilitates regional development.p. Continue Reading »

Driving Away: The Impact of a 50 percent Drop in the Demand for Ontario’s Automotive Output

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

An issue that has been simmering in Ontario for decades, if not a century, relates to the prospects for the province’s manufacturing sector. Ontario is the manufacturing heart of Canada, and given this specialization, the province is susceptible to periods of declining demand for manufactured products, most often triggered by periods of economic recession in the U.S.p. Continue Reading »

Ontario on the Move: Put Infrastructure Where it’s Needed

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Economic history has shown that changes in infrastructure systems have often underlain phases of significant economic growth. Railroads in the 19th century, highway systems of the 1960s, and the internet infrastructure of the late 20th century are prime examples. The innovation that gives rise to new infrastructure systems is often a response to severe stress and is often driven by desperate circumstances. Ontario’s opportunity lies not in reacting to a crisis but in proactively investing in the infrastructure necessary for future success.p. Continue Reading »

A New Menu for Ontario’s Food Economy

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Ontario has long been a producer of food, but the nature of that production has changed significantly as has the quality. Now there is a buzz around food, and Ontario has the opportunity to be at the forefront of food innovations.p. Continue Reading »

Ontario Values Creative Class Occupations Less than our U.S. Peers Do

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The fastest growing jobs in Ontario today are creative class jobs, where workers are paid to think for a living. These are the jobs most regions prize; and their importance to prosperity will only increase.p. "Continue Reading »":/insights/insight/ontario-values-creative-class-occupations-less-than-our-us-peers-do

Economic Pain Not Spread Equally

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

If a recession hits Ontario, as many think is already the case, will its turbulence affect all of us in the same way? Not if past history is a guide.

Martin Prosperity Institute researchers using the definition initially introduced in Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class have examined century-long trends in employment in four major economic classes of workers: Creative class, Service class, Working class, and Farming/forestry/fishing class.p. Continue Reading »

The Creative Density of Cities

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Cities like Toronto and Portland are already encouraging more density to cut down on sprawl and pollution, and protect green space. But researchers at the Martin Prosperity Institute argue that there’s another reason to encourage people, especially creative people, to live near each other in cities: it makes them more likely to innovate and develop new ideas that lead to growth and prosperity.p. Continue Reading »