I do.
Thank you very much for your comments. I think it's an important point.
We have in fact reviewed the literature on this. We've looked at studies that have been done historically in Canada, and studies that have been done around the world. Clearly the evidence does show that taxes can affect where people locate and also work.
There has been research done by Statistics Canada, for example, looking at the mobility of knowledge-based workers, including doctors, engineers, and natural scientists. I'm happy to pass along references to that study.
There's been research published by the Canadian Public Policy journal, looking at the effect of taxation on emigration to the U.S. from 1995 to 2001. It found that Canadians, those who had the most to gain in terms of a lower tax bill, were in fact immigrating to the U.S. It is the most highly skilled who are more prone to moving across jurisdictions. They are more mobile than the average worker because of the opportunities afforded them. Also, research has been done, very important research, that was published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy.
There have been major studies that have looked at this issue, studies in the prestigious American Economic Review, which I would turn your attention to. It was published two years ago. This study, very innovative in what it did, looked at the influence of taxes on mobility decisions of skilled workers. The study looked at the effect of personal tax rates, and it found that they play a significant role in attracting foreign soccer players into top leagues in 14 western European countries. The effect was particularly strong for high-quality players, defined as players who had been selected for national teams at least once in their career.
Finally, a recent study, this one done by the National Bureau of Economic Research, used a similar method of tracking migration among a specific set of skilled workers. Specifically, the authors looked at “superstar” inventors, measured by patent citation data in eight countries, including Canada and the U.S., from—