Exploiting differences across U.S. states, this paper demonstrates that there is a tight link between higher education policies, past enrollment rates, and recent changes in the college wage premium among labor market entrants. The analysis reveals, however, that this relationship is much weaker...

This paper uses the Canadian Labour Force Survey to understand why the level and dispersion of wages have evolved differently across provinces from 1997 to 2013. The starker interprovincial differences are the much faster increase in the level of wages and decline in wage dispersion in...

Considerable concern has recently been expressed about growing income inequality. Much of the discussion, though, has been in general terms and focused on the U.S. experience. To understand whether and how Canada ought to respond to this development, we need to be clear on the facts. This paper...

Universality is a hallmark of Canadian social policy for very young children. The evidence base for these policies is small, non-experimental and offers mixed results. In contrast the evidence base for targeted early childhood interventions is largely experimental and offers strong guidance....

We construct a new time series on the Canadian female/male pay ratio. The new series is based on wage data rather than the earnings data that has been used in the past. Wages more closely correspond to the price of labour, which is the focus of most theories of labour market discrimination and...

In this paper we document the economic outcomes of elderly immigrants to Canada. Our objective is to describe the extent to which elderly immigrants may have low income (are “in povertyâ€) and their interactions with the Canadian income transfer system. The study has two main parts....