Productivity Disparities Between American and Canadian High Tech Worker: The Human Capital and Knowledge Spillovers/Disparites de Productivite des Travailleurs Du Haut Savoir Canadiens Et Americains : Le Capital Humain Et Les Economies D'agglomeration Du Savoir‪.‬

Abstract Following the first oil shock of 1973, there was a decline in the growth of productivity in Canada, as in the rest of the OECD countries. However, since the middle of the nineties, the productivity lag between the Canadian and United States economies has increased, mainly due to the earlier progress made in the United States regarding worker productivity. The assumption underlying our work is that the accumulation of human capital explains, at least in part, differences in productivity between the Canadian and American workers. The accumulation and diffusion of knowledge, induced by the exchange of information, ideas and findings among people, allow for an accumulation of what Beine, Docquier (2000) call a "collectiveness skill", a skill that promotes increased productivity throughout the workforce. The knowledge obtained through such exchanges is not priced in the market, and is thus considered a positive externality, here called knowledge spillovers. We postulate that the accumulation and diffusion of knowledge, as well as the emergence of knowledge spillovers, is greatly increased in metropolitan areas characterized by a high population density, a high level of education, a high level of occupational specialization and finally, a location tied to other metropolitan areas where such knowledge spillovers occur. We also hypothesize that a lesser combination of these same characteristics in the local economy of Canadian metropolitan areas would partly explain the productivity gap between Canadian and American workers.