摘要：The first article in this volume is Mansell and Copithorne's survey of the literature on Canadian regional economic disparities. They assess an array of data on regional disparities, noting especially the trends over the business cycle. This is followed by a largely descriptive section that briefly summarizes the empirical work with respect to a number of economic disparities and their correlation (or lack of it) with popular explanatory variables such as industry mix and agglomeration economies. The authors conclude that the major determinants of the variations in per worker output and earnings are labour quality (20 percent), capital intensity (50 percent) (p. 17), scale economies, and technological change, although the latter two are admittedly "risky" generalizations (p. 19). Differences in participation rates are cited as an effect, not a cause, of regional disparities (p. 21). The empirical results are presented with a limited critique of the approaches used.
