Download or read book If It Matters, Measure It written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This then provides the impetus for any number of government programs providing subsidies of one sort or another to "diversify the economy," often with a focus on expanding one or a few sectors, most commonly manufacturing.1 And the greater the instability the louder are the calls for diversification. [...] In general, the variability of this portfolio declines as the number of such placements increases and as there are increases in the number of situations of negative covariance (that is, where the share prices of individual companies tend to move in opposite directions).5 In general, the same principle applies in an economy. [...] Instead of the typical forced-growth policies, where chosen firms or sectors are given subsidies or preferential access to credit, 4 The economic surplus or overall gain associated with a federation includes the gains from: a greater degree of specialization and economies of scale from the reduction/elimination of barriers to interregional trade and flows of factors; the pooling of risks at the na [...] That is, the decline in the level of diversification in terms of Canadian real GDP since the early 1980s does not appear to be significantly caused by changes in the shares of either of these two large sectors. [...] The share for the agriculture component declined while that for mining (which includes oil and gas) increased, though the increase of the latter did not fully offset the decline in the former.