Quality Of Life, Firm Productivity, And The Value Of Amenities Across Canadian Cities

David Albouy (), Fernando Leibovici and Casey Warman

No 1287, Working Paper from Economics Department, Queen's University

Abstract: This paper presents the first hedonic general-equilibrium estimates of quality-of-life and firm productivity differences across Canadian cities, using data on local wages and housing costs. These estimates account for the unobservability of land rents and geographic differences in federal and provincial tax burdens. Quality of life estimates are generally higher in CanadaÂ’s larger cities: Victoria, Vancouver are the nicest overall, particularly for Anglophones, while Montreal and Ottawa are the nicest for Francophones. These estimates are positively correlated with estimates in the popular literature and may be explained by differences in climate. Toronto is CanadaÂ’s most productive city; Vancouver, the overall most valued city.

Keywords: quality of life; firm productivity; cost-of-living; firm productivity; compensating wage differentials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H24 H5 H77 J61 R1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2012-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-geo, nep-tur and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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https://www.econ.queensu.ca/sites/econ.queensu.ca/files/qed_wp_1287.pdf First version 2012 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Quality of life, firm productivity, and the value of amenities across Canadian cities (2013)
Journal Article: Quality of life, firm productivity, and the value of amenities across Canadian cities (2013)
Working Paper: Quality of Life, Firm Productivity, and the Value of Amenities across Canadian Cities (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:qed:wpaper:1287

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