Many economists have until fairly recently treated the family as a "black box" -- analysing the behaviour of "the family" rather than of the individuals within the family. In this paper, we outline the new "collective" approach to modelling family behaviour which makes explicit the fact that...

We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth to ask whether (a) parenting a child with a disability or chronic condition leads to lower maternal health status; (b) the association is larger over the longer term; and (c) health consequences are larger for lone than married...

Child obesity is currently an important policy problem in Canada. Making the best evidence-based policy choices in response requires having the best possible evidence. Yet, we point out how easy it can be to make serious mistakes when measuring child obesity, particularly for young children. We...

We study changes in time and money available to families with children from 1971 to 2006. Increases in incomes at the top of the Canadian income distribution since the mid-1990s have taken place without any significant increases in total family hours of paid work. On the other hand, for families...

This paper uses the child sample of Statistics Canada's 2001 Participation and Activity Limitations Survey to study the economic costs of caring for children with disabilities in Canada. Both explicit out-of-pocket expenditures and implicit costs in the form of foregone labour market...

This paper uses longitudinal microdata from the Statistics Canada National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) to study the family income dynamics of Canadian children from the time they are 4 or 5 until they are 14 or 15. Dynamics of family income have been studied less often than...

This paper uses micro data from the 1988/89/90 Labour Market Activities Survey to study some behavioural implications of the Canadian maternity/parental benefits system. We find, first, that fertility behaviour is not significantly influenced by the availability of benefits, and, second, that...

This paper uses estimated labour-supply functions to predict behavioural responses and hence changes in the level and distribution of income resulting from the 1989 reform of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program. The focus of the paper is on changes in the UI eligibility provisions and...

This paper assesses two dimensions of the new Canadian child benefit system. First, evidence is presented to show that the earned-income supplement (EIS) will not increase the labour supply of parents with low earnings. Second, the paper demonstrates that the level of child benefits is low by...

Under both Unemployment Insurance (UI) and now under Employment Insurance (EI), Canada has offered extra benefits for some claimants with dependent children. This paper assesses the replacement of the Depenencey Rate (DR) under UI with the Family Income Supplement (FS) under EI. The major...