This second volume in the Bell Canada Papers on Economic and Public Policy focuses on stabilization issues, growth and innovation, and labour markets. The essays explore linkages among macro-stabilization policy, economic growth, innovation activity, and distribution.

Continuing the focus of earlier volumes on ways in which economic growth, globalization, and nationalism are being forged and reshaped by growth in the knowledge-based economy, this fourth volume of the Bell Canada Papers on Economic and Public Policy explores policy frameworks for a knowledge economy from a variety of perspectives.

In this collection of essays leading Canadian policy analysts focus on a range of issues and implications arising from the 1997 federal budget. Essays include a comparative assessment of the Paul Martin and Michael Wilson budgets, an assessment of the emerging fiscal dividend and an evaluation of alternative ways in which it can be spent, a comprehensive overview of the proposed child benefits package, an in-depth examination of new proposals for both the Canada Pension Plan/Quebec Pension Plan and employment insurance, and an empirical review of the fiscal stance as it relates to employment...

When will the fiscal dividend appear and what is its likely magnitude? Should deficit targets be replaced by debt targets or debt/GDP targets? Should the fiscal dividend focus on tax cuts and increases in program expenditures? Should the Canadian government shift away from an annual deficit target to budget balance over the cycle to allow automatic stabilizers to play their important buffering role? And if so, what level of contingency reserve is necessary to ensure that cyclical budget balance can be met? Addressing these and other important questions, Fiscal Targets and Economic Growth...

The Nation State in a Global/Information Era, the fifth volume of the Bell Canada Papers on Economic and Public Policy, examines the nature and role of the nation state in an era of globalization and information. The essays represent a diverse set of views on the relationship between states and markets domestically and internationally, the relevance of the nation state vis-a-vis both international regimes and sub-national regions, and the nature of the relationship between states and their citizens.

Session I provides a wide-ranging survey of how North American integration impinges on a myriad of key policy areas and how this may influence Canada's room to manoeuvre. Session II focuses on the degree to which multinationals carry their home-country corporate culture and practices to their host-country environment. Session III addresses the telecomputational revolution and what it implies for Canadian policy in an information age. Session IV reflects on the on-going unbundling of post-war "embedded liberalism" and suggests alternative approaches in terms of which domestic regulatory...