Since transportation activity is a dreived demand i.e. a demand based on the level and changes in economic activity, it grows when general economic activity grows and slows down during slower economic growth. This is the long term affinity (trend) between the two. Therefore, understanding the socioeconomic changes affecting the economy is essential in assessing the transportation sector's performance and prospects. During recent years, the economy and transportation have entered an era of important structural changes. Therefore the present muddling of the Canadian economy is not only the result of an economic business cycle (short term) but also the result of important structural changes (long term). Structural changes have two origins : changes realted to the supply of goods and services and those related to the demand for such goods and services. Over the last few years, major changes which may have had an effect on transportation as follows : Structural changes in Demand : Consumer bahavioral changes. A change in perception about common sense spending; consumers are now focusing more on their needs than on their want. Govenment behavioral changes. Higher structural deficits have forced governments to increase revenues, mostly through taxes, and to reduce expenditures thus reducing their contribution to economic growth. Redistribution of economic power. Within the OECD area, economic power has shifted from the U.S. to Japan and to the unified Europe. The Goods and Services Tax. The GST is one of the most important structural changes introduced over the last three decades. Structural changes in supply : two major oil price shocks. Ever since the first oil price shock, energy prices have been more widely, rigorously and frequently factored inot the cost function of the firm. Persistently higher real interest rates. This has been the norm over the last ten years. High unemployment. Most economics agree that an unemployment rate cannot be held below 8 per cent by aggregate demand stiumlation without generating higher inflation. Excess capacity. There is increased production capacity as a result of the Free Transde Agreement (FTA), Economic Regulatory Reform. On the one hand, the world-wide push for the reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers has increased markets for producers. Higher Canadian Dollar. In the longer run, the Canadian econommy will be in better shape and this will drive up the Canadian dollar. Therefore, businesses can no longer rely on a lower dollar to sell their goods and services abroad. They will have to restructure their operations and they must do it now. There is little doubt that these long term adjustments are being felt particularly during the present phase of the business cycle and that they will make the road to recovery and expansion longer and harder than is usually the case. No matter how exacting such changes are in the short term, longer term benefits should soon be apparent in the form of the rationalization of the Canadian economy and the transportation sector which, in the longer term, are expected to be in a relatively better shape. In the meantime, Canadians will have to cope with these significant, painful but much needed adjustments. For the covering abstract of this conference, see IRRD number 854032.

This study provides a comprehensive overview of Korea’s macroeconomic growth and structural change since World War II, and traces some of the roots of development to the colonial period. The authors explore in detail colonial development, changing national income patterns, relative price shifts, sources of aggregate growth, and sources of sectoral structural change, comparing them with other countries.

Addressing the role that the transportation sector plays in business cycle propagation, this title presents an index of the different indicators for this sector to identify its state, and predict its future, using various statistical procedures.

The transformation of the world economy from a system of nations trading materials-intensive goods to a system of seamless global networks for information-intensive goods and services has created the need for a comprehensive restructuring of transportation and communications activities. The contributors - transportation and communications analysts from Japan and the United States - address this restructuring from a variety of perspectives ranging from theoretical treatments of the role of information in the economy to applications of communications technologies for the collection of travel data. The authors transcend traditional methods of transportation and communication analysis in order to address emerging issues that are not well represented by the prevailing cost-benefit framework. Many draw from advances in social sciences, such as game theory, that recognize the interdependence of human decision making. New ways of assessing the economic benefit of infrastructure and the evolving role of institutions in the information economy are demonstrated, along with novel approaches to analyzing human mobility and interaction in a knowledge-rich environment. By moving beyond traditional forms of analysis that were better suited to an earlier time, the chapters in this book provide a wealth of insights for policy formulation in the globalized knowledge economy. This comprehensive volume will be of great value to regional scientists and economic geographers, as well as civil engineers, economists, and analysts interested in transportation and communications.

This paper focuses on the sluggish growth of world trade relative to income growth in recent years. The analysis uses an empirical strategy based on an error correction model to assess whether the global trade slowdown is structural or cyclical. An estimate of the relationship between trade and income in the past four decades reveals that the long-term trade elasticity rose sharply in the 1990s, but declined significantly in the 2000s even before the global financial crisis. These results suggest that trade is growing slowly not only because of slow growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but also because of a structural change in the trade-GDP relationship in recent years. The available evidence suggests that the explanation may lie in the slowing pace of international vertical specialization rather than increasing protection or the changing composition of trade and GDP.

This book is a theoretical investigation of the influence of human learning on the development through time of a 'pure labour' economy. The theory proposed is a simple one, but aims to grasp the essential features of all industrial economies. Economists have long known that two basic phenomena lie at the root of long-term economic movements in industrial societies: capital accumulation and technical progress. Attention has been concentrated on the former. In this book, by contrast, technical progress is assigned the central role. Within a multi-sector framework, the author examines the structural dynamics of prices, production and employment (implied by differentiated rates of productivity growth and expansion of demand) against a background of 'natural' relations. He also considers a number of institutional problems. Institutional and social learning, know-how, and the diffusion of knowledge emerge as the decisive factors accounting for the success and failure of industrial societies.

"Innovation and entrepreneurship are ubiquitous today, both as fields of study and as starting points for conversations among experts in government and economic development. But while these areas on continue to attract public and private investments, many measurements of their resulting economic growth-including productivity growth and business dynamism-have remained modest. Why this difference? Because not all business sectors are the same, and the transformative gains of some industries have been offset by stagnation or contraction in others. Accordingly, a nuanced understanding of the economy requires a nuanced understanding of where innovation and entrepreneurship occur and where they matter. Answering these questions allows for strategic public investment and the infrastructure for economic growth.The Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth, the latest entry in the NBER conference series, seeks to codify these answers. The editors leverage industry studies to identify specific examples of productivity improvements enabled by innovation and entrepreneurship, including those from new production technologies, increased competition, new organizational forms, and other means. Taken together, the volume illuminates whether the contribution of innovation and entrepreneurship to economic growth is likely to be concentrated, be it selected sectors or more broadly"--