Regional Inequality and Decentralized Governance: Canada’s Provinces

Regional scientists commonly concern themselves with topics involving regional inequalities—why they occur and persist, how inequality may be reduced or what exacerbates it, and the impact of policy interventions. Regional nequalities fuel our research and its policy relevance. For most of us, these investigations are in the context of exogenously defined “regions,” with political and administrative boundaries originating in a decentralized government context. The regions that are our units of analysis seldom reflect economic realities, yet their boundaries, once drawn, are very persistent and to a large extent determine the degree to which inequalities may be reduced over time, either through private decisions or through government policy. This paper offers a descriptive illustration of fundamental differences among Canada’s provinces as a potential constraint on the possibility of convergence over time, interregional migration responses, and the impacts of an explicit national government equalization.