Political Ideology and Economic Freedom Across Canadian Provinces

Abstract

This paper examines how political ideology influenced economic freedom in the Canadian provinces. We analyze the dataset of economic freedom indicators compiled by the Fraser Institute in 10 Canadian provinces over the 1981-2005 period and introduce two different indices of political ideology: government and parliament ideology. The results suggest that government ideology influenced labor market reforms: market-oriented governments promoted liberalization of the labor market. Parliamentary ideology did not influence economic liberalization at all. This finding (1) identifies differences between leftist and rightwing governments concerning the role of government in the economy and (2) indicates that ideological polarization concerns governments but less parliamentary fractions in the Canadian provinces.

The size and scope of government in the US states: does party ideology matter?

“…Changes in spending and taxation policies become visible more quickly than changes in labor market regulation policies and are also more likely to be rewarded by myopic voters. Third, our result for the US states is in line with Bjørnskov and Potrafke (2012) who show that rightwing parties have deregulated labor markets in the Canadian provinces. Notes: robust standard errors in brackets; * significant at 10%; ** significant at 5%; *** significant at 1%…”

“…We focus on the influence of party ideology and do not investigate electoral cycles. 2 Scholars have examined how government ideology influenced economic policy-making across counties in other federal states, for example documenting partisan influence in Canada (e.g., Ferris and Voia 2011;Bjørnskov and Potrafke 2012). spent more per capita.…”

Economic Freedom in the Early 21st Century: Government Ideology Still Matters

“…Only a few studies examine the influence of government ideology on economic freedom. On the federal level, right‐wing government ideology is associated with more freedom on labor markets in American and Canadian states (Bjørnskov and Potrafke, , ) and with economic freedom in Western German states (Potrafke, ). But there is only one time‐series cross‐sectional analysis of the relationship between the EFW Index and government ideology: Pitlik () uses five‐year averages for 23 OECD countries to show that right‐wing governments are relatively more supportive of economic freedom over the period 1970‐2000.…”

Conducting Research with Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Populations: Navigating Research Ethics Board Reviews

“…One ethics board raised no objection to the research protocol while the second ethics board expressed several concerns. The experience of these researchers highlights the lack of consistency from board to board, which may be due to individual reviewers' perspectives, degree of familiarity with LGB populations, and perhaps the location of one board in an area that is more politically conservative (Bjørnskov & Potrafke, 2011). The latter, however, also suggests that what might be considered a reasonable concern about potential risks to LGB participants may indeed vary from location to location-for example, in a more LGB-affirmative setting with civil rights protections for sexual minorities and legal recognition of same-sex marriage versus a locale with more pervasive sexual prejudice and institutionalized discrimination.…”