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• 1. Literacy and the Labour Market: The Generation of Literacy and Its Impact on Earnings for Native Born Canadians Archived

  Articles and reports: 89-552-M2007018

  Geography: Canada

  Description:

  This study examines the distribution of literacy skills in the Canadian economy and the ways in which they are generated. In large part, the generation of literacy skills has to do with formal schooling and parental inputs into their children's education. The nature of literacy generation in the years after individuals have left formal schooling and are in the labour market is also investigated. Once the core facts about literacy in the economy have been established, the study turns to examining the impact of increased literacy on individual earnings. Both the causal impact of literacy on earnings and the joint distribution of literacy and income are explored. The authors argue that the latter provides a more complete measure of how well an individual is able to function in society.

  The study focuses mainly on data from the Canadian component of the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS), composed of a sample of over 22,000 respondents. The Canadian component of the 1994 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) is also used in order to obtain a more complete picture of how literacy changes with age and across birth cohorts.

  Release date: 2007-11-30

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• 2. Human Capital and Canadian Provincial Standards of Living Archived

  Articles and reports: 89-552-M2006014

  Geography: Canada

  Description:

  This paper examines the role of human capital accumulation in explaining the relative levels of income per capita across Canadian provinces. We use principally two different types of human capital indicators based respectively on university attainment and literacy test scores. A synthetic time series of the average literacy level of labour market entrants for each period between 1951 and 2001 is constructed from the demographic profile of literacy test scores taken from the 2003 Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey. The percentage of the working-age population holding a university degree is available since 1951 from the census figures. Our main results are the following. First, both human capital indicators are strong predictors of the relative levels of per capita income (minus government transfers) across provinces, along with the relative rates of urbanization and specific shocks in Alberta and Quebec. Second, the skills acquired by one extra year of schooling result in an increase in per capita income of around 7.3 percent. Third, we find that our literacy indicator does not outperform the university attainment indicator. This contrasts sharply with our recent result found at the cross-country level (Coulombe, Tremblay, and Marchand [2004]) and suggests substantial measurement error in cross-country schooling data. Fourth, by focusing on regional economies that have similar levels of social infrastructure and social development, our analysis provides potentially more reliable estimates of the contribution of human capital accumulation to relative living standards.

  Release date: 2006-04-05

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• 1. Literacy and the Labour Market: The Generation of Literacy and Its Impact on Earnings for Native Born Canadians Archived

  Articles and reports: 89-552-M2007018

  Geography: Canada

  Description:

  This study examines the distribution of literacy skills in the Canadian economy and the ways in which they are generated. In large part, the generation of literacy skills has to do with formal schooling and parental inputs into their children's education. The nature of literacy generation in the years after individuals have left formal schooling and are in the labour market is also investigated. Once the core facts about literacy in the economy have been established, the study turns to examining the impact of increased literacy on individual earnings. Both the causal impact of literacy on earnings and the joint distribution of literacy and income are explored. The authors argue that the latter provides a more complete measure of how well an individual is able to function in society.

  The study focuses mainly on data from the Canadian component of the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS), composed of a sample of over 22,000 respondents. The Canadian component of the 1994 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) is also used in order to obtain a more complete picture of how literacy changes with age and across birth cohorts.

  Release date: 2007-11-30

  ---

• 2. Human Capital and Canadian Provincial Standards of Living Archived

  Articles and reports: 89-552-M2006014

  Geography: Canada

  Description:

  This paper examines the role of human capital accumulation in explaining the relative levels of income per capita across Canadian provinces. We use principally two different types of human capital indicators based respectively on university attainment and literacy test scores. A synthetic time series of the average literacy level of labour market entrants for each period between 1951 and 2001 is constructed from the demographic profile of literacy test scores taken from the 2003 Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey. The percentage of the working-age population holding a university degree is available since 1951 from the census figures. Our main results are the following. First, both human capital indicators are strong predictors of the relative levels of per capita income (minus government transfers) across provinces, along with the relative rates of urbanization and specific shocks in Alberta and Quebec. Second, the skills acquired by one extra year of schooling result in an increase in per capita income of around 7.3 percent. Third, we find that our literacy indicator does not outperform the university attainment indicator. This contrasts sharply with our recent result found at the cross-country level (Coulombe, Tremblay, and Marchand [2004]) and suggests substantial measurement error in cross-country schooling data. Fourth, by focusing on regional economies that have similar levels of social infrastructure and social development, our analysis provides potentially more reliable estimates of the contribution of human capital accumulation to relative living standards.

  Release date: 2006-04-05

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