Appropriate labour market policies, tax structure, competition policy, and an open trading system can all help to boost productivity. Let me say a few words about the Bank of Canada's roles in monetary policy and financial system policy. Since 1991, Canada's monetary policy has been guided by an explicit inflation target.
Information technology, e.g., as measured by the degree of "wiredness" and density of mobile phones, helps in global competition. However, even more important is the free competition of ideas and ideologies. Here relevant metrics include the freedom of the press  4  See e.g., OECD (2007), Education at a Glance, Paris. 5  See The world in 2007, The Economist Intelligence Unit’s http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/DEMOCRACY_INDEX_2007_v3.pdf.