Canada's Employment Insurance program pays weekly benefits to the unemployed that vary in generosity across regions. While the variable entrance requirements help deliver more benefits to seasonal workers, the mechanism spreads the generosity of benefits to all workers in a region, raising the...

Canada’s generally good labour market performance over the past several years, exemplified in a 33-year, record-low unemployment rate, masks strikingly large regional disparities. In September 2007, the national unemployment rate was 6 percent, but it ranged from 2.8 percent in central Alberta...

Reform is required for social program rules that prevent the poor from saving in Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) and Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), according to this study. The author says that encouraging asset accumulation, even in small amounts, is crucial in helping to lift...

Getting a university degree offers substantial financial returns, for women more so than men and for undergraduate degrees more so than advanced degrees. This report finds that high returns to education signal high labour demand in particular fields relative to supply, information which is...

How do parents, teachers, taxpayers and school administrators know if their children attend a good school? Parents, in particular, deserve more information than they can glean from parent-teacher nights or award-filled graduation ceremonies. More meaningful information would allow them to fairly...

In neighbourhoods with falling student populations, policymakers should place a priority on closing middle schools and, elsewhere, avoid opening new ones. In this report, the author shows that middle school attendance increases the chance that students will fail provincially administered...