Policies for Other People: Reflections from an Economist on Research and Federal Policy Regarding Indigenous Nations in Canada after 1975

How do settler colonial governments make policies related to Indigenous nations and peoples? One way is by responding to research. Research, however, is also influenced by public policy and its underlying social stories. In this article, I reflect on the literature published in Canada's premier public policy journal, Canadian Public Policy (CPP), since 1975 and the work published in economics journals to understand the current state of academic policy dialogue in Canada, as constructed by CPP and economists. Fewer than 3 percent of all articles in CPP from inception to the most recent volume focused on Indigenous contexts. A much lower percentage of articles were published in the top 400 ranked economics journals, with 21 articles identified. Most of this literature focuses on education and labour markets or Indigenous rights and self-government, with the former notably more prominent after 2000. I discuss these two streams of literature and confirm findings from the labour market literature with more recent data. In reviewing the literature, it becomes clear that much still remains to be done for research to reflect the full economic realities of Indigenous nations and for policy to make space for Indigenous economic life.