The JDI Policy Insight series provide balanced academic summaries of key policy issues, helping readers assess the benefits, costs, and risks of reforms and understand what we know and don’t know about policy. The series is edited by Christopher Cotton. Papers are subject to peer review before publication.
Abstract: AI algorithms increasingly inform decisions in credit, hiring, healthcare, criminal sentencing, and public administration. In Canada, governing these tools is no longer only a technical matter; it is also a matter of public policy. Yet policy debate still often asks whether an algorithm is “fair” as if that question could be answered at the level of the model alone. In many high-stakes settings, however, algorithmic outputs are filtered through human judgment, institutional rules, and competing fairness objectives before they shape final outcomes. This article draws five policy-relevant insights from the academic literature. Fairness has multiple competing definitions, and they can pull in different directions. Better predictive performance does not necessarily reduce disparity. A widening disparity after adoption does not by itself identify the source of unfairness. How fairness risks are framed can influence organizational response. And evaluating the model is not the same as evaluating the decision process built around it. These points matter for how policymakers define fairness objectives, interpret post-deployment disparities, communicate fairness risks, and govern the translation from model output to institutional action.
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Abstract: This article examines possible mechanisms underlying the health effects of employment documented in two empirical studies: the Whitehall Study and the Community Employment Innovation Project. It considers how worker characteristics, workplace environments, and social interactions may shape the relationship between employment and health. Based on this mechanism-oriented discussion, the article then translates these mechanisms into policy implications aimed at improving the well-being of both current and prospective workers.
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Abstract: Designing immigration policy is a challenge of profound importance for destination economies around the world. Understanding how immigration impacts the economy is crucial for this task. In this article, I survey the literature on this topic and begin by explaining why estimating the impact of immigration on the economy is an empirically challenging exercise. I then show that, even among studies with convincing empirical strategies, there is far from a consensus on the impact of immigration on the wages and employment of existing workers. Immigration can sometimes lead to wage increases and better opportunities for native workers; in other contexts, it lowers wages and crowds out native employment. I end by discussing the underlying mechanisms that lead to these aggregated responses and argue that the absence of a universal relationship between immigration inflows and the economic outcomes of existing workers should not be surprising; these outcomes are determined in large part by how individual firms respond to immigration which may differ depending on local economic conditions, the types of immigrants arriving, and how those immigrants complement existing firms and workers. It is the hope that this article will be of practical help to policymakers weighing the effects of immigration on local markets.
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Abstract: This article reviews existing evidence on the Canadian credit card market, focusing on three issues: the financial health of cardholders who carry revolving debt, the effects of competition in the payment market, and the implications of credit cards for economic inequality. While revolving balances are often interpreted as signs of financial distress, available evidence points to a more nuanced picture. The article then examines how network externalities shape competition among card networks and evaluates the effectiveness of recent Canadian regulatory efforts. Finally, it reviews the literature on the relationship between credit cards and inequality, emphasizing that any assessment of their welfare effects should account not only for rewards, interest, and fees, but also for their value as a source of unsecured credit.
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Abstract: The shift of advertising revenue from news media to digital platforms has coincided with sustained contraction in the journalism industry, particularly at the local level. Several jurisdictions have responded by requiring platforms to compensate news publishers for content displayed on their services. This paper surveys evidence from three major policy experiments—Australia's News Media Bargaining Code (2021), the European Union's Article 15 press publishers' right (2019), and Canada's Online News Act (2023)—and evaluates the trade-offs such policies involve. Taking the sustainability of news production as a legitimate policy objective, the paper asks when mandatory transfers from platforms to publishers improve welfare and how design choices shape outcomes. Mandatory bargaining has generated substantial payments—over AUD 200 million in Australia and CAD 100 million annually in Canada—but has also been followed by platform withdrawal, with Meta blocking news access for Canadian users since August 2023. The paper identifies design features that appear to influence platform responses, examines distributional consequences for local journalism, and offers recommendations for policymakers seeking to sustain news production in the digital age.
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Abstract: Immigrants tend to have substantially worse labour market outcomes than Canadian-born workers. This paper provides an overview of immigrants in the Canadian labour market, describing the key barriers that can arise when changing cultures and labour markets and that can hinder immigrants from realizing their economic potential. It then summarizes the efforts Canada has made to alleviate these barriers and highlights some persistent challenges going forward, such as the current state of foreign credential recognition (FCR) and cautioning against the rise of the two-step immigration scheme. Finally, it offers some insights for future policy, such as a more rigorous evaluation of Canada's Settlement Program, decreasing the disconnect between federal admission decisions and the perceptions of new immigrants by firms and regulatory bodies, and optimizing the points system.
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Abstract: This paper provides an overview of Canada's internal trade barriers that limit cross-province trade and competition. It summarizes the different types of barriers, how costly they are for consumers and the economy, recent efforts to reduce them, and why they persist. It then summarizes 22 reforms and investments that could be undertaken by Canadian provincial and federal governments to break down the barriers. The paper classifies these reforms into four categories and presents several strategies for incentivizing reform.
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