This paper considers the possible role of shifts in labour demand away from unskilled workers, combined with an institutionally-generated greater labour supply elasticity in Canada, in explaining the apparent secular increase in Canadian male unemployment, and in explaining the emergence of the...

Since the mid-1970s, unskilled Canadian men have experienced very sizeable reductions in real wages, and they now work substantially fewer weeks per year. This article discusses a wide range of possible policy responses to this phenomenon, arguing that the best short-term response is the...

Using a new survey of Canadian job searchers, this paper attempts to measure the effect of employment equity laws on job search outcomes, and on perceptions of discrimination by both men and women. We find some evidence that employment equity coverage in a pre-separation job reduces the relative...

This paper looks at changes in hourly wages and hours worked per week of prime-age males in different skill groups (measured by earnings quintile) in the United States and Canada from 1981 to 1997. The analysis reveals that increases in hourly wage inequality are primarily responsible for...

Employment protection laws abound in the developed world; in Canada they primarily take the form of advance notice requirements of up to four months for layoffs. Recent research on the partial-equilibrium effects of such notice requirements reveals that they are effective in reducing the...