Author Description

Although both Alberta and Texas both experienced prolonged booms between the start of the energy price rally in 2004 and the downturn in com- modity prices starting in late 2014, there are important differences between the two jurisdictions' economic experiences both during the years of the boom itself and in very recent years since energy prices fell. [...] After addressing these two groups of questions in the second and third sections of this paper, we turn in the fourth section to compare the fiscal positions and prospects of the two jurisdictions today, in light of the sharp recent downturn in energy prices. [...] As we will see in the next section, it is true that public sector employment growth in Alberta significantly outstripped growth in Texas (with important implications for the two provinces' overall fiscal records, which we discuss in the next section), but figure 6 suggests that this difference is not primarily responsible for the overall higher level of employment growth in Alberta during this per [...] While the existence of a gap between the jurisdic- tions may be partially explained by different responsibilities under the fed- eral systems in the two countries, it is a less compelling explanation for the significant growth in the size of the gap over the course of this period. [...] Also, it is the trends in the latter part of the period that are of particular importance for Alberta, as developments during those years helped set the table for recent negative fiscal developments which will be discussed in the next section.