Keyword search

This Bulletin provides recent information on the performance and funding of Federal Government Expenditures on Scientific Activities, 1999-2000.

Series Description:

This series includes five general reference products - the Preview of Products and Services; the Catalogue; the Dictionary; the Handbook and Technical Reports - as well as two geography reference products - GeoSuite and Reference Maps.

Product Description:

The 1996 Census Dictionary provides detailed information on all of the concepts, variables and geographic elements of the 1996 Census. Information provided for each variable includes a definition, the associated census questions, applicable response categories or classifications and special remarks, namely on historical aspects. Users should make use of this edition of the 1996 Census Dictionary for the most up-to-date information. This final edition is also available on our web site as a free downloadable product.

The National Population Health Survey (NPHS) is a family of surveys with multiple objectives, one of which is to provide information on a panel of people who will be followed over time to reflect the dynamic process of health and illness. Data for the first cycle of the NPHS - Households Survey were collected from June 1994 to June 1995, and were released in September 1995. Data for the second cycle were collected from June 1996 to August 1997. One of the primary outputs for the second cycle is a longitudinal master file. This paper will describe six major strategies that were developed to process the longitudinal master file.

In 1994, Statistics Canada introduced a new longitudinal social survey that collects information from about 23,000 children spread over 13,500 households. The objective of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth is to measure the development and well being of children until they reach adulthood. To this end, the survey gathers together information about the child, parents, neighbourhood as well as family and school environment. As a consequence, the data collected for each child, is provided by several respondents, from parents to teachers, a situation which contributes to an increased disclosure risk. In order to reach a balance between confidentiality and the analytical value of released data, the survey produces three different microdata files with more or less information. The master file that contains all the information is only available by means of remote access. Hence, researchers do not have direct access to the data, but send their request in the form of software programs that are submitted by Statistics Canada staff. The results are then vetted for confidentiality and sent back to the researchers. The presentation will be devoted to the various disclosure risks of such a survey and to the tools used to reduce those risks.

In epidemiology analysis of longitudinal data is commonly accepted as providing the most robust measures of association between putative risk and selected outcomes such as death or cancer. SMARTIE is a SAS application for efficient analysis of longitudinal data. Based on person days at risk, it can handle multiple exits from and re-entries to risk, and derives outcome measures such as survival rates. Standardised Mortality Ratios (SMRs) and Cancer Incidence Ratios (SIRs). Summary data can be produced in a format easily ported to any modelling package such as Stats 5.0. We discuss the background to its development, the overall program structure, its command language, and finally we say something about the organization of outputs. Findings from survival studies using the Longitudinal Study of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are used to demonstrate features of SMARTIE. This study is based on one per cent of the population of England and Wales. It is continually updated with the addition of new members and with information from birth, death and cancer records, and from the census.

Models for fitting longitudinal binary responses are explored using a panel study of voting intentions. A standard repeated measures multilevel logistic model is shown inadequate due to the presence of a substantial proportion of respondents who maintain a constant response over time. A multivariate binary response model is shown a better fit to the data.

Longitudinal studies with repeated observations on individuals permit better characterizations of change and assessment of possible risk factors, but there has been little experience applying sophisticated models for longitudinal data to the complex survey setting. We present results from a comparison of different variance estimation methods for random effects models of change in cognitive function among older adults. The sample design is a stratified sample of people 65 and older, drawn as part of a community-based study designed to examine risk factors for dementia. The model summarizes the population heterogeneity in overall level and rate of change in cognitive function using random effects for intercept and slope. We discuss an unweighted regression including covariates for the stratification variables, a weighted regression, and bootstrapping; we also did preliminary work into using balanced repeated replication and jackknife repeated replication.

This paper presents a method for handling longitudinal data in which individuals belong to more than one unit at a higher level, and also where there is missing information on the identification of the units to which they belong. In education, for example, a student might be classified as belonging sequentially to a particular combination of primary and secondary school, but for some students, the identity of either the primary or secondary school may be unknown. Likewise, in a longitudinal study, students may change school or class from one period to the next, so 'belonging' to more than one higher level unit. The procedures used to model these stuctures are extensions of a random effects cross-classified multilevel model.

The British Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a quarterly household survey with a rotating sample design that can potentially be used to produce longitudinal data, including estimates of labour force gross flows. However, these estimates may be biased due to the effect of non-response. Weighting adjustments are a commonly used method to account for non-response bias. We find that weighting may not fully account for the effect of non-response bias because non-response may depend on the unobserved labour force flows, i.e., the non-response is non-ignorable. To adjust for the effects of non-ignorable non-response, we propose a model for the complex non-response patterns in the LFS which controls for the correlated within-household non-response behaviour found in the survey. The results of modelling suggest that non-response may be non-ignorable in the LFS, causing the weighting estimates to be biased.

At the end of 1993, Eurostat lauched a 'community' panel of households. The first wave, carried out in 1994 in the 12 countries of the European Union, included some 7,300 households in France, and at least 14,000 adults 17 years or over. Each individual was then followed up and interviewed each year, even if they had moved. The individuals leaving the sample present a particular profile. In the first part, we present a sketch of how our sample evolves and an analysis of the main characteristics of the non-respondents. We then propose 2 models to correct for non-response per homogeneous category. We then describe the longitudinal weight distribution obtained from the two models, and the cross-sectional weights using the weight share method. Finally, we compare some indicators calculated using both weighting methods.

This document brings together data from a number of Statistics Canada surveys and provides a visual perspective on the following subject areas: crime, police administration, adult and youth court activity, the correctional population, costs of the criminal justice system, violence against women, Canadians' experiences with crime, and their perceptions and fears of crime.

This compendium of vital statistics includes summary data on births, deaths, marriages and divorces. The introduction covers the data sources, data quality, and methods pertaining to each event, and includes a glossary defining the terms used. The first chapter is a brief overview of vital statistics for 1996. Subsequent chapters treat marriage, divorce, birth, fetal and infant mortality, total mortality, causes of death, vital statistics by census division, and international comparisons. Most charts and tables show Canada data for 1986 though 1996, while the charts and tables for causes of death show Canada data for 1979 through1996. Data for the provinces and territories are usually shown for 1995 and 1996. Appendices include population denominator data, age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) calculation methods, and leading causes of death methodology.

Operating ratios for top carriers improved by one point in the first and second quarter of 1999 over the same period one year earlier. Average revenue per carrier fell 1% in the first quarter and rose only 3% in the second quarter.

On an industry wide basis, Canadian bus companies continue to grow and prosper. Gross revenues in 1998 (excluding subsidies) were 8.6 percent higher than in 1995.

With the exception of the third quarter (0.94), for-hire motor carriers of freight posted seasonally adjusted operating ratios of 0.93 in three out of the four quarters of 1998.

Data on registration of motor vehicles by type including passenger automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, buses, trailers and others are presented in this publication. A historical table of total registrations is provided. Motor vehicle registrations are shown by census divisions and municipalities where available. Data definitions, analysis, the methodology employed, an explanation of data quality and a bibliography are included.

This on-line publication provides detailed capital expenditures by type of asset on both construction and machinery and equipment made by private and public organizations in Canada. For each province and territory and for the 19 divisions of the Canadian economy, it details capital expenditures according to four types of residential construction, 95 types of non-residential construction, and 56 categories of machinery and equipment. Included are data on capital expenditures for major renovation and alteration of construction assets as well as for major retrofit and refurbishing of machinery and equipment assets. Trade and general construction contractors, suppliers of construction materials, and suppliers of machinery and equipment will find these data useful for market analysis.

This monthly publication presents data by weight on the acquisition, stock, production and shipment of raw and refined sugar for the month and the year-to-date from refiners of raw cane or beet sugars as well as those who further process such sugars. Geographic detail is at the national level. The December issue includes a list of reporting firms.

Consulting Engineering Services Price Index (CEPI) is an annual index that measures changes in the prices for services provided by consulting engineers. These services encompass advisory and design work as well as construction or project management. They are provided for many types of projects (fields of specialization), and to both Canadian and foreign clients. Price indexes are published for 10 fields of specialization as well as for national, regional, and foreign markets.

This occasional on-line bulletin series presents price indexes published by the Goods and Services Producing Industries Section, Prices Division. Each issue will contain different service price indexes.

The most recent issue contains "An update on the paper and allied products industry" by Gilles Simard. After a prosperous 1994 and 1995, and the brutal fall in 1996, the Paper and Allied Products Industry experienced a less turbulent period during the last three years. Prices have been relatively stable reflecting the slack demand for goods produced by this industry. The Asian crisis afflicted the West coast wood pulp producers while the demand for newsprint in the United States helped maintain activities in the East. This article, based on the results of the 1997 Annual Survey of Manufactures, briefly describes changes to the industry in 1997 and 1998, and looks at recent events in 1999.

The latest issue contains the article "Printing, publishing and allied industries: an overview" by Sharon Boyer. This paper provides highlights and an overview of the economic activity and contribution of the Publishing, Printing and Allied Industries Major Group 28, to the manufacturing sector and to the Canadian economy as a whole. The impact of international trade will also be examined.

Based on the results from the 1997 Annual Survey of Manufactures, but using information from other more current Statistics Canada sources, this article includes data from 1999.

The latest issue contains the article "The transportation equipment industries in Canada, 1985 - 1997 - A review of change". The transportation equipment industries are the largest industrial manufacturing group in Canada representing more than a quarter of the total value of manufacturing shipments in 1997. They include the manufacturing of a diverse range of products, ranging from aircraft to ships to automobile assembly to vehicle parts and accessories manufacturing. As well, the manufacturing activity also includes repairs to aircrafts, boats and ships.

Since 1985 these industries have experienced sustained growth in terms of total shipments as well as the number of workers employed. The hourly wages paid to workers are much higher than the average hourly wages for all manufacturing. The gap between the hourly wages of the workers in the automotive industry and the rest of the workers in the transportation equipment industry has been widening considerably since 1985.

The auto industry has weathered free trade with the United States without suffering the job losses or decreasing productivity that some analysts predicted before the agreement took effect. In fact, productivity has increased, as have incomes.

Over 70% of the output was exported, mostly to the United States. Given the sustained prosperity that the United States has enjoyed for more than a decade now, it is not surprising that the Canadian transportation equipment industries have also performed well.

The chemical and chemical products industry is one of the key manufacturing industries in Canada. In 1996, despite an increase in exports and in prices, the growth this industry has known since the beginning of the decade slowed down. This leading-edge industry employs a scientific labour force, which is not always associated with manufacturing.

Recent economic trends, including expanding globalization of trade (as evidenced by new trade agreements), volatility in market exchange rates, and greater interest in international comparisons of real income and productivity are generating increased interest in intercountry comparisons. These comparisons are made in real terms derived from purchasing power parities (PPPs). In Canada, a particularly important relationship with the United States focusses attention on US/Canada comparative price and volume measures. This article includes updated annual bilateral volume indexes of real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and its components for the United States, compared with Canada, and the associated PPPs.

This paper describes the evidence that several Statistics Canada studies have developed on the importance of innovation to growth and the need for highly skilled workers in the innovation process. Rather than focusing on broad industry aggregates as is often done, we concentrate our attention on firms and their behaviour. This allows us to investigate the connection between the success of businesses and the strategies that they pursue.

We find that the more successful firms attribute their success to having developed competencies in a wide range of areas-but that the common factor that most frequently distinguishes faster from slower growing firms is innovation. Innovators in turn place greater emphasis on training and acquiring skilled workers.

The studies also show that the emphasis on highly skilled workers varies across industries. In goods industries, a training strategy complements an innovation strategy that focuses on R&D, the adoption of new advanced technologies, or the development of new processes. Small firms that are innovative train their workers when they introduce new machinery and equipment. In the service sector, the innovation strategy relies less on new capital and more on new skills embodied in the workforce. Here there is evidence that a training strategy, by itself, has more impact on the success of a firm-probably because it is more likely to be the innovation strategy of the firm.

This release provides data on the research and development activities of the private non-profit sector.

This release provides data on the research and development activities of the private non-profit sector. Although the contribution of this sector to the national research and development effort is small in dollar terms, its impact, particularly in the university sector, is significant.Questionnaires were mailed to 95 private non-profit organizations thought to be supporting research and development activities.Twenty-two organizations reported performing research and development.

The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics has prepared a report on the use of remand in Canada. Remand refers to persons who have been charged with an offence and ordered by the court to custody while awaiting a further court appearance. This report uses data from the Adult Correctional Services (ACS) survey to assess the trends in remand admissions, sentence lengths, and average daily counts of remand inmates in provincial/territorial correctional facilities between 1988-89 and 1997-98. Characteristics of remand inmates (e.g., age, gender, marital status, level of education, employment), offences and criminal history were studied using data from the One-Day Snapshot report (a census of inmates on-register in adult correctional facilities on midnight Saturday October 5th 1996). Characteristics and offences of youth on remand in 1997-98 were also examined using data from the Youth Custody and Community Services (YCCS) survey. Trends in the average counts of youth on remand between 1988-89 and 1997-98 are presented using data from the Corrections Key Indicator Report. Appendices include graphs of admissions and average daily counts for each province and territory.

This paper examines the factors contributing to innovative activity in the Canadian food processing sector. The study first focuses on the importance of research and development activity and advanced business practices used by production and engineering departments. Second, it examines the extent to which larger firm size and less competition serve to stimulate competition-the so-called Schumpeterian hypothesis. Third, the effect of the nationality of a firm on innovation is investigated. Finally, industry effects are examined.

The paper finds that business practices are significantly related to the probability that a firm is innovative. This is also the case for R&D. Size effects are significant, particularly for process innovations. Elsewhere, their effect is greatly diminished once business practices are included. Foreign ownership is significant only for process innovations and not for product innovations. Competition matters, more so for product than for process innovations. Establishments in the 'other' food products industry tend to lead when it comes to innovation, whereas fish product plants tend to lag.

At the end of 1993, Eurostat lauched a 'community' panel of households. The first wave, carried out in 1994 in the 12 countries of the European Union, included some 7,300 households in France, and at least 14,000 adults 17 years or over. Each individual was then followed up and interviewed each year, even if they had moved. The individuals leaving the sample present a particular profile. In the first part, we present a sketch of how our sample evolves and an analysis of the main characteristics of the non-respondents. We then propose 2 models to correct for non-response per homogeneous category. We then describe the longitudinal weight distribution obtained from the two models, and the cross-sectional weights using the weight share method. Finally, we compare some indicators calculated using both weighting methods.

The U.S. Bureau of the Census implemented major changes to the design of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) with the panel begun in 1996. The revised survey design emphasized longitudinal applications and the Census Bureau attempted to understand and resolve the seam bias common to longitudinal surveys. In addition to the substantive and administrative redesign of the survey, the Census Bureau is improving the data processing procedures which yield microdata files for the public to analyse. The wave-by-wave data products are being edited and imputed with a longitudinal element rather than cross-sectionally, carrying forward information from a prior wave that is missing in the current wave. The longitudinal data products will be enhanced, both by the redesigned survey and new processing procedures. Simple methods of imputing data over time are being replaced with more sophisticated methods that do not attenuate seam bias. The longitudinal sample is expanding to include more observations which were nonrespondents in one or more waves. Longitudinal weights will be applied to the file to support person-based longitudinal analysis for calendar years or longer periods of time (up to four years).

This article extends and further develops the method proposed by Pfeffermann, Skinner and Humphreys (1998) for the estimation of gross flows in the presence of classification errors. The main feature of that method is the use of auxiliary information at the individual level which circumvents the need for validation data for estimating the misclassification rates. The new developments in this article are the establishment of conditions for model identification, a study of the properties of a model goodness of fit statistic and modifications to the sample likelihood to account for missing data and informative sampling. The new developments are illustrated by a small Monte-Carlo simulation study.

The study of social mobility, between labour market statuses or between income levels, for example, is often based on the analysis of mobility matrices. When comparing these transition matrices, with a view to evaluating behavioural changes, one often forgets that the data derive from a sample survey and are therefore affected by sampling variances. Similarly, it is assumed that the responses collected correspond to the ' true value.'

A longitudinal study on a cohort of pupils in the secondary school has been conducted in an Italian region since 1986 in order to study the transition from school to working life. The information have been collected at every sweep by a mail questionnaire and, at the final sweep, by a face-to-face interview, where retrospective questions referring back to the whole observation period have been asked. The gross flows between different discrete states - still in the school system, in the labour force without a job, in the labour force with a job - may then be estimated both from prospective and retrospective data, and the recall effect may be evaluated. Moreover, the conditions observed by the two different techniques may be regarded as two indicators of the 'true' unobservable condition, thus leading to the specification and estimation of a latent class model. In this framework, a Markov chain hypothesis may be introduced and evaluated in order to estimate the transition probabilities between the states, once they are corrected or the classification errors. Since the information collected by mail show a given amount of missing data in terms of unit nonresponse, the 'missing' category is also introduced in the model specification.

The log-linear modelling of categorical longitudinal survey data on income is studied. An emphasis is on inference about change. Special attention is paid to modelling of longitudinal data from two waves. A small illustration is based on data from the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics.

The purpose of the present study is to utilize panel data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to examine the effects of unit nonresponse. Because most nonrespondents to the CPS are respondents during at least one month-in-sample, data from other months can be used to compare the characteristics of complete respondents and panel nonrespondents and to evaluate nonresponse adjustment procedures. In the current paper we present analyses utilizing CPS panel data to illustrate the effects of unit nonresponse. After adjusting for nonresponse, additional comparisons are also made to evaluate the effects of nonresponse adjustment. The implications of the findings and suggestions for further research are discussed.

The disseminated results of annual business surveys inevitably contain statistics that are changing. Since the economic sphere is increasingly dynamic, a simple difference of aggregates between n-l and n is no longer sufficient to provide an overall description of what has happened. The change calculation module in the new generation of annual business surveys divides overall change into various components (births, deaths, inter-industry migration) and calculates change on the basis of a constant field, assigning special importance to restructurings. The main difficulties lie in establishing subsamples, reweighting, calibrating according to calculable changes, and taking account of restructuring.

We address the problem of estimation for the income dynamics statistics calculated from complex longitudinal surveys. In addition, we compare two design-based estimators of longitudinal proportions and transition rates in terms of variability under large attrition rates. One estimator is based on the cross-sectional samples for the estimation of the income class boundaries at each time period and on the longitudinal sample for the estimation of the longitudinal counts; the other estimator is entirely based on the longitudinal sample, both for the estimation of the class boundaries and the longitudinal counts. We develop Taylor linearization-type variance estimators for both the longitudinal and the mixed estimator under the assumption of no change in the population, and for the mixed estimator when there is change.

In longitudinal surveys, sample subjects are observed over several time points. This feature typically leads to dependent observations on the same subject, in addition to the customary correlations across subjects induced by the sample design. Much research in the literature has focussed on modeling the marginal mean of a response as a function of covariates. Liang and Zeger (1986) used generalized estimating equations (GEE), requiring only correct specification of the marginal mean, and obtained standard errors of regression parameter estimates and associated Wald tests, assuming a "working" correlation structure for the repeated measurements on a sample subject. Rotnitzky and Jewell (1990) developed quasi-score tests and Rao-Scott adjustments to "working" quasi-score tests under marginal models. These methods are asymptotically robust to misspecification of the within-subject correlation structure, but assume independence of sample subjects which is not satisfied for complex longitudinal survey data based on stratified multi-stage sampling. We proposed asymptotically valid Wald and quasi-score tests for longitudinal survey data, using the Taylor Linearization and jackknife methods. Alternative tests, based on Rao-Scott adjustments to naive tests that ignore survey design features and on Bonferroni-t, are also developed. These tests are particularly useful when the effective degrees of freedom, usually taken as the total number of sample primary units (clusters) minus the number of strata, is small.