Do Canadians pay more than Americans for the same products?

Author

J. Baldwin, B. Yan

Organization

Statistics Canada

Published

2003

Summary

This study examines the purchasing power of Canadian consumers relative to their American counterparts in order to assess the degree of integration between the markets of the two countries.

The study, published today in Canadian economic observer, Statistics Canada's flagship publication for economic statistics, investigated this issue using data from the Purchasing Power Parity program. It contains more than 160 bilateral commodity prices over five benchmark years: 1985, 1990, 1993, 1996 and 1999.

The study found that, on average, there were no significant price differences between Canada and the United States for highly standardized products that flow relatively freely across the border. There were, however, subsets with significant differences.

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Source: Consumer Policy Research Database