Northern Ontario’s universities are
proud of their research
intensiveness and success. Indeed, over the last decade they have made an
impressive effort to acquire the flagships of research intensity – the academic
research chair.
Research chairs
highlight and foster a specific area of research importance by dedicating
specific resources to support the chair holder’s research.
Along with budgets for research, these
chairs allow a professor to concentrate on research by reducing their teaching
load.
Many of the research chairs currently at northern Ontario
three largest universities - Laurentian, Lakehead, and Nipissing are funded by
the federal government via the Canada Research Chairs program.
There are also other chairs that have
been funded with partnerships with other agencies and funding groups as well as
internal university resources.
As
noted in a
previous post there appear to be 17 such positions currently held at
Laurentian University, 16 at Lakehead University, 4 at Nipissing and one at
Algoma.
Moreover, these
research chairs cover a wide range of topics stretching from applied
evolutionary ecology to indigenous health and aerial robotics.
However, there is a curious omission when it comes to these
many important topics – anything specifically to do with economics. Indeed, three important economic sub-fields
given northern Ontario’s economy are nowhere in sight: regional economics,
transportation economics and natural resource economics. Such an oversight is troubling
especially given the constant use by universities of the words “economic
development” or “economic impact” as background context whenever major research
projects or research chairs are announced.
Perhaps the average university administrator believes that economic
analysis is too important a subject to be left solely to economists and should
be shared across disciplines. Sharing
and interdisciplinary work is important in 21st century academic
research but so should be respecting the need for disciplinary boundaries and expertise. While sociologists, social workers,
engineers and political scientists all may have some insights as to how the
economy functions, no one does economic analysis like economists. Economic analysis done by economists
ultimately makes use of economic theory and mobilizes empirical evidence in a
sophisticated framework to provide understanding. Key to this analysis is the importance of incentives and the
market mechanism in driving individual and group behavior.
Economic development and the state of the regional economy
in northern Ontario is a constant topic of public discussion and a challenge to
regional leaders. The state
of the regional economy is a constant lament when delegations of municipal leaders
trot off to Toronto to make presentations or have their meetings. With such a hunger for developing the
regional economy one would expect more evidence-based effort to understand the
regional economy on the part of the region’s universities from the perspective
of economic theory and analysis. And
yet, not even one research chair in
economics at a northern Ontario university.
Its not that the federal government via the Canada Research
Chairs Program does not fund chairs in economics. Indeed, a visit to the Canada Research Chairs web site and a
hunt through their database yields 23 such research chairs in the discipline of
economics. Another 22 are held in management, business and administrative
studies – if one wants a broader definition of “economic “ study.
Interestingly, there are no business or finance research chairs at
northern Ontario universities either.
Given that there are approximately 1800 Canada Research
Chairs, this means about 2.5 percent of Canada Research Chairs are held in
economics or business schools. In
the case of northern Ontario, 2.5 percent of 38 should work out to about 1
research chair. Given the importance of the economy to a region has seen slow
growth for nearly half a century, one might make the case for more than one
chair. Yet there is not even one.
Why? That is a
good question. I don’t have an answer but let me hypothesize. One reason is probably the theoretical
nature of economic analysis. The
bulk of these northern Ontario research chairs have an applied nature that ultimately
sees economic impact as a byproduct rather than something worthy of study in
its own right. That probably
also explains why when times were good in the transportation or forest sectors,
companies in the region never put together the funding for a chair in resource
or transportation economics. The
traditional resource extraction mentality that is ingrained in the northern
Ontario psyche focuses on the short term applied benefits rather than the analytical
long-term implications. If
there is not an immediate short-term practical payoff, attention spans in the
north drop off quickly.
Another reason may be the discomfort universities have with
economists given that economists emphasize market-driven solutions while
universities are generally places more comfortable with non-market perspectives. This ideological comfort zone extends
outside the academy as northern Ontario universities operate in a regional environment
where government plays a large role politically and economically. As an added point about university
politics, while economists emphasize market driven solutions they also
are often poor salesmen when it comes to articulating their point of view in
the political committee process that often drives decisions on things like
research chair fields.
Finally, another reason may be that much economic analysis
by economists in northern Ontario is already being done via consulting
contracts for public agencies and government ministries. Moreover, substantial economic analysis
and commentary has also been provided for free as a public good by economists
such as myself, and more notably David Robinson at Laurentian via op-eds and
blog contributions. Why sink
long-term money into research when you can get it via either a short-term
contract or for free?
Yet, relying on short-term contract research for economic
insight does not allow the freedom to pursue bigger picture research issues
when it comes to the northern Ontario’s economy’s needs. Free economic analysis will eventually
end as a generation of more community minded economists retires.
Northern Ontario universities should put their ideological
preferences and comfort zones aside and embrace the academic diversity they should be reflecting
by welcoming more points of view.
It is time for renewal and
investment in long-term economic research capacity via research chairs in
economics dedicated to fields of direct benefit to northern Ontario’s economy:
regional, natural resource and transportation economics. If there is any better idea as to what
kind of research chairs in economics are needed in the north, let us hear them.
Finally, the cynical reader out there might surmise that
this post is merely self-interested advocacy.
I can assure you that I have no interest in a research chair
in northern Ontario dealing with regional, transport or natural resource
economics.
My case for a northern
Ontario research chair in economics is a case for investment in the future.
The future is best served by adding fresh new economists
and their research to the academic infrastructure in
northern Ontario.
