Devotions
Jurisdictional Competitiveness and Prosperity defines the relationship between the competitiveness of a jurisdiction – whether city-region, state or province, or nation – and the degree to which its inhabitants enjoy high and rising prosperity. Prosperity is a function of the institutions and infrastructures that enable financial, human, knowledge, social and physical assets to be combined so as to produce more valuable outputs than those of competing jurisdictions.
My Devotion:
I want to lead the effort to build a better set of theories and models for understanding and producing jurisdictional competitiveness and prosperity. Currently, there is no integrated view as to how a jurisdiction can maximize its competitiveness and prosperity. Many fields supply un-integrated from the perspective of their particular academic silo. Public finance economists advise on taxation. Urban planners advise on green space. Labor economists advise on minimum wage, etc. But there is no integrative view. My work in the field started decades ago with Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School, but more recently has been a function of my Chairmanship of the Ontario Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Progress, to which I was named by the Premier of Ontario in 2001. To perform the research work for the Task Force, I created The Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity which has performed original research on jurisdictional competitiveness and prosperity since 2001. Even more recently, with the creation of the Martin Prosperity Institute in 2007 and the hiring of my colleague Dr. Richard Florida as the academic director, we have created the ability to combine Richard’s work on the locational choices of human capital with my work on the locational choices of corporations.
Our overall goal is to create rigorously- researched and actionable theory on jurisdictional competitiveness and prosperity that can inform policy making around the world. In particular, we want to focus on broad prosperity – that is, the creation of prosperity that is broadly enjoyed by the entire population rather than enjoyed only by the privileged few at the top of the economic food chain.
Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity
The Institute site is a veritable treasure trove of analysis and commentary on competitiveness and prosperity issues. The site includes over a dozen working papers, Ontario annual reports for each year since 2002, Canada annual reports for each year since 2004, and numerous other reports. The ICP is ably led by James Milway, its Executive Director.
Martin Prosperity Institute
The Martin Prosperity Institute site is also quickly becoming a treasure trove. Of particular note, take a look at its first major research paper called Ontario in the Creative Age. Or scan down the list of Martin Prosperity Insights, one page summaries of key data and analysis on important issues of jurisdictional competitiveness and prosperity.
