Carleton University’s Stanley Winer still remembers Doug Purvis, and knew him well before his death 20 years ago.
Now he’s receiving a prize named in honour of the Canadian economist for a book he co-authored entitled Interregional Migration and Public Policy in Canada: An Empirical Study.
“It’s very nice,” says Winer, Canada research chair professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration. “I knew him professionally, so it’s nice to be honoured this way.”
Winer is the award’s third recipient from Carleton University since it started in 1994. The Doug Purvis Prize is awarded annually to authors who have written about a highly significant issue in Canadian economic policy.
Winer’s book looks at the different factors that influence a person’s decision to migrate within Canada – paying particular attention to different public policies like unemployment insurance and taxation, which vary region to region.
“I studied this problem 30 years ago, and I came back to it,” says Winer. “We’re one of the few countries in the developed world in which the unemployment insurance system differentiates according to where you live, rather than your labour market circumstances.”
For example, someone living in a high unemployment region – like the east coast – would have more generous benefits than someone living in Toronto.
The book examines the effects of these differences, and also focuses on areas within Canada that saw major events that impacted a region’s public policy – including the election of a separatist government in Quebec and the collapse of the Atlantic cod fishery.
Winer will receive the award on June 1 at the Canadian Economics Association conference in Montreal.
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