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  • Stats in brief: 13-604-M1999036
    Description:

    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.

    Release date: 1999-11-30

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 89F0077X
    Description:

    The National Longitudinal Survey of Children (NLSC) is the first Canada-wide survey of children. Starting in 1994, it will gather information on a sample of children and their life experiences. It will follow these children over time, collecting information on the children and their families, education, health, development, behaviour, friends, activities, etc.

    Release date: 1999-10-22

  • Journals and periodicals: 84F0013X
    Geography: Canada, Province or territory
    Description:

    This study was initiated to test the validity of probabilistic linkage methods used at Statistics Canada. It compared the results of data linkages on infant deaths in Canada with infant death data from Nova Scotia and Alberta. It also compared the availability of fetal deaths on the national and provincial files.

    Release date: 1999-10-08

  • Articles and reports: 62F0014M1998007
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    Over the years, the concept of core inflation has become of crucial importance for the central banks of various countries. Indeed, many of them have at some point given themselves the mandate to reduce inflation and achieve price stability. The Bank of Canada undertook this mandate in February 1991.

    Core inflation should reflect what is basic in price movements and ignore temporary fluctuations that have no long-term impact on prices. The phenomenon of core inflation must be of a lasting nature. The targets were initially set on the basis of the overall consumer price index (CPI). However, the Bank of Canada has stated that for practical reasons, it will focus on the consumer price index excluding the volatile food and energy components.

    The question that many are asking is the following: is a measure such as the CPI excluding food and energy a good indicator of core inflation? At the meeting of the 1996 Price Measurement Advisory Committee, a review of the literature on core inflation was presented. The Committee recommended taking a closer look at a weighted median index as a means of estimating core inflation. This study deals with the question of a weighted median index and covers the period of January 1985 to January 1997. The rates of change in the weighted median index calculated from monthly movements are quite often lower than the rates of change in the official index. This behaviour reflects the usual distribution of monthly price movements for the CPI, meaning a large proportion of the monthly movements are close to zero, and the remaining price movements are, in majority, positive. Because of this behaviour of monthly movements, the weighted median index advances much more slowly than the official index. This behaviour is just as evident when inflation advances at annual rates of 4% to 5% as when it ranges around 2%. An index based on the weighted median of monthly movements in the CPI yields somewhat disconcerting results. Even though some think that the official CPI does not clearly reflect the concept of core inflation, one does not necessarily expect to see such a large gap develop over time.

    Release date: 1999-10-05

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 75F0002M1999003
    Description:

    This document presents the questions, responses and interview flow for the Contact and Demographic portions of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) interviews.

    Release date: 1999-09-27

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 75F0002M1999004
    Description:

    This paper presents the questions, possible responses and question flows for the 1999 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) preliminary questionnaire.

    Release date: 1999-09-27

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 75F0002M1999005
    Description:

    This paper outlines the structure of the January 1999 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) labour interview questionnaire, including question wording, possible responses, and flows of questions.

    Release date: 1999-09-27

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 13F0026M1999006
    Description:

    Although income and expenditure data provide an indication of current consumption and ability to purchase goods and services, they provide little information on the long-term ability of families to sustain themselves. The results of this survey will provide information on the net worth (wealth) of Canadian families, that is, the value of their assets less their debts.

    This paper examines the objectives of the survey, how the survey has changed since 1984, the types of questions being asked and information that will be provided, as well as other survey background. An accompanying table outlines the content of the questionnaire. The intent of this paper is to describe the work done to date and the next steps for this important subject.

    Release date: 1999-09-27

  • Articles and reports: 61F0041M1997001
    Description:

    Primary product specialization and coverage ratios are now being produced and published for Canadian manufacturing industries. This paper reviews concepts, outlines uses, summarizes 1994 data, details a number of methodological issues, examines sources of change over time and measures those sources by means of a shift/share decomposition. The paper also describes the algorithm that has been developed for detecting and treating confidential values. This algorithm includes the use of rounding and the application of ranges; such treatment maintains confidentiality while allowing specialization and coverage data to be released for each and every manufacturing industry. The Appendix comprises specialization and coverage ratios for 1994.

    Release date: 1999-09-01

  • Articles and reports: 88F0006X1999006
    Description:

    This study provides background information towards developing working definitions of e-commerce. In addition, through selected case studies it examines whether respondents could provide information for such measurements. The study distinguishes between e-commerce and e-business, the former being a sub-set of the latter and emphasizes computer-mediation as an important feature of this phenomenon. A definition of e-commerce is then proposed: "Transactions carried over computer-mediated channels that comprise the transfer of ownership or the entitlement to use tangible or intangible assets".

    Release date: 1999-08-20
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  • Stats in brief: 13-604-M1999036
    Description:

    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.

    Release date: 1999-11-30

  • Journals and periodicals: 84F0013X
    Geography: Canada, Province or territory
    Description:

    This study was initiated to test the validity of probabilistic linkage methods used at Statistics Canada. It compared the results of data linkages on infant deaths in Canada with infant death data from Nova Scotia and Alberta. It also compared the availability of fetal deaths on the national and provincial files.

    Release date: 1999-10-08

  • Articles and reports: 62F0014M1998007
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    Over the years, the concept of core inflation has become of crucial importance for the central banks of various countries. Indeed, many of them have at some point given themselves the mandate to reduce inflation and achieve price stability. The Bank of Canada undertook this mandate in February 1991.

    Core inflation should reflect what is basic in price movements and ignore temporary fluctuations that have no long-term impact on prices. The phenomenon of core inflation must be of a lasting nature. The targets were initially set on the basis of the overall consumer price index (CPI). However, the Bank of Canada has stated that for practical reasons, it will focus on the consumer price index excluding the volatile food and energy components.

    The question that many are asking is the following: is a measure such as the CPI excluding food and energy a good indicator of core inflation? At the meeting of the 1996 Price Measurement Advisory Committee, a review of the literature on core inflation was presented. The Committee recommended taking a closer look at a weighted median index as a means of estimating core inflation. This study deals with the question of a weighted median index and covers the period of January 1985 to January 1997. The rates of change in the weighted median index calculated from monthly movements are quite often lower than the rates of change in the official index. This behaviour reflects the usual distribution of monthly price movements for the CPI, meaning a large proportion of the monthly movements are close to zero, and the remaining price movements are, in majority, positive. Because of this behaviour of monthly movements, the weighted median index advances much more slowly than the official index. This behaviour is just as evident when inflation advances at annual rates of 4% to 5% as when it ranges around 2%. An index based on the weighted median of monthly movements in the CPI yields somewhat disconcerting results. Even though some think that the official CPI does not clearly reflect the concept of core inflation, one does not necessarily expect to see such a large gap develop over time.

    Release date: 1999-10-05

  • Articles and reports: 61F0041M1997001
    Description:

    Primary product specialization and coverage ratios are now being produced and published for Canadian manufacturing industries. This paper reviews concepts, outlines uses, summarizes 1994 data, details a number of methodological issues, examines sources of change over time and measures those sources by means of a shift/share decomposition. The paper also describes the algorithm that has been developed for detecting and treating confidential values. This algorithm includes the use of rounding and the application of ranges; such treatment maintains confidentiality while allowing specialization and coverage data to be released for each and every manufacturing industry. The Appendix comprises specialization and coverage ratios for 1994.

    Release date: 1999-09-01

  • Articles and reports: 88F0006X1999006
    Description:

    This study provides background information towards developing working definitions of e-commerce. In addition, through selected case studies it examines whether respondents could provide information for such measurements. The study distinguishes between e-commerce and e-business, the former being a sub-set of the latter and emphasizes computer-mediation as an important feature of this phenomenon. A definition of e-commerce is then proposed: "Transactions carried over computer-mediated channels that comprise the transfer of ownership or the entitlement to use tangible or intangible assets".

    Release date: 1999-08-20

  • Articles and reports: 62F0014M1997005
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    Since 1961, the service component of the Canadian Consumer Price Index (CPI) has generally shown a higher rate of increase than the goods component. Furthermore, when some of the more volatile components of the CPI are removed the spread widens. For instance, during the same period core goods inflation (excluding food and energy) increased at an annual rate of 4.3% compared to 6.1% per cent for services (excluding shelter). The literature on service sector inflation suggests five explanations for this phenomenon. Although all these sources of the inflation differential are interesting and important in their own right, this paper will examine two. Some believe that service inflation is a statistical artifact stemming from the inherent difficulties in measuring the output of services and hence their price changes. This issue will be examined first. Indeed the measurement problem appears more serious for services; however it cannot be held completely responsible for the inflationary gap. William Baumol (1967) originally suggested the other cause for higher service inflation whereby unbalanced sectorial growth would be the cause of the divergent inflation rates. This explanation will be the focus of the second part of the paper. In spite of the attractiveness of Baumol's model, empirical evidence rejects the hypothesis.

    Release date: 1999-05-13

  • Articles and reports: 62F0014M1997009
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    A research program was recently initiated by Prices Division to explore the feasibility of using the hedonic approach for making quality adjustments in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for clothing items. The current paper is the first of a series, which attempts to derive hedonic quality adjustments for Men's Dress Shirts. A database for quality characteristics is first constructed, from which two experimental hedonic models are estimated. One of these models is then used to produce hedonic quality adjustments for all shirt substitutions that have occurred subsequent to May 1995 up to June 1996. These values are then compared with the actual quality adjustments used in the official CPI. Although results are preliminary, three important conclusions can be made. First, quality adjustments derived using the hedonic versus the traditional approach are very different, at least at the level of individual substitutions. Which of the two approaches is more accurate, however, is not evident at this premature stage. Second, the integrity of the data on quality characteristics will have to improve greatly if the hedonic approach is ever to be considered as a viable alternative. Finally, improving the source data on quality characteristics would be of value whether or not the hedonic approach is adopted for making quality adjustments. One of the ways this could be done would be to adopt the checklist approach, which is the current procedure in the United States and in Sweden.

    Release date: 1999-05-13

  • Articles and reports: 62F0014M1998006
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    Statistical agencies such as Statistics Canada are investigating the use of scanner data for their own purposes. Interest has grown in the potential uses of this data to improve the quality of price indexes. This paper reports on initial research done in Prices Division. The paper looks at scanner data and the feasibility of its use to produce CPI estimates; evaluates current CPI methodology and procedures; and the impact that use of scanner data would have on the CPI commodity indexes. The main focus of the study, however, is to explore the impact that scanner data would have on the CPI basic commodity indexes covered by scannable items. Since the CPI criterion relates to a limited selection of scanner data, an examination will be made of the impact of gradually relaxing the criteria to include more products and outlets from the scanner data. The initial subset was derived by applying the CPI criteria of volume selling brands and outlets. Each of these changes in criteria yielded a different subset of scanner data. Calculations were performed using these various subsets of scanner data and their results compared to the CPI. An analysis of the results will be used in determining the strengths and limitations of CPI data, detect any deficiencies and provide information for revision of pricing selection.

    Release date: 1999-05-13

  • Articles and reports: 62F0014M1998011
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    This paper is the second in a series reporting on the current progress of a study whose purpose is to explore the feasibility of using the hedonic approach for making quality adjustments to the Clothing component of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). In this phase of the study, two preliminary checklists were developed for obtaining prices and quality characteristics for Men's Dress Shirts and Men's Sports Jackets. These checklists were then used for data collection in the field on expanded CPI samples for the two items. To date, the resulting database for Men's Dress Shirts has been used to derive a hedonic model. The main conclusions that can be made at this point are: 1) checklists represent a certain improvement over the current method of reporting and should be developed for all clothing items in the CPI; 2) if the hedonic approach to quality adjustment in clothing is to be formally adopted then the CPI samples will have to be augmented, at least periodically to permit estimation; and 3) more experience is needed with the hedonic approach in research mode, using clothing items with more complexity, before we can say whether the hedonic approach should be formally adopted as an alternative to our current method of quality adjustment for clothing items.

    Release date: 1999-05-13

  • Articles and reports: 62F0014M1998012
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    This paper examines the methods of adjustment for quality change made in the Canadian Consumer Price Index for the period 1989 to 1994. It finds that in most cases the current Canadian practice ensures that the replacement of one commodity by another, one variety of a commodity by another, or one outlet by another, has no impact on the overall index. The main exceptions to this result occur when replacing varieties of commodities that are purchased only occasionally, and a judgement is made that the quality ratio between the old and new variety is not the same as the ratio of their prices. In these cases there is an impact on the index, up or down, depending on whether the change in price reported is higher or lower than the change in quality. From the experience of the CPI in these six years there has been a correlation between the price ratio of a variety and its replacement and the index movement that derives from the judgement. The direction and size of the impact on the index depends largely on whether an item is replaced with a higher or lower priced item. For these reasons, the paper argues that more attention should be paid to ensuring that the item selection is more representative of current sales than has traditionally been the case.

    Release date: 1999-05-13
Reference (11)

Reference (11) (0 to 10 of 11 results)

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 89F0077X
    Description:

    The National Longitudinal Survey of Children (NLSC) is the first Canada-wide survey of children. Starting in 1994, it will gather information on a sample of children and their life experiences. It will follow these children over time, collecting information on the children and their families, education, health, development, behaviour, friends, activities, etc.

    Release date: 1999-10-22

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 75F0002M1999003
    Description:

    This document presents the questions, responses and interview flow for the Contact and Demographic portions of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) interviews.

    Release date: 1999-09-27

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 75F0002M1999004
    Description:

    This paper presents the questions, possible responses and question flows for the 1999 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) preliminary questionnaire.

    Release date: 1999-09-27

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 75F0002M1999005
    Description:

    This paper outlines the structure of the January 1999 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) labour interview questionnaire, including question wording, possible responses, and flows of questions.

    Release date: 1999-09-27

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 13F0026M1999006
    Description:

    Although income and expenditure data provide an indication of current consumption and ability to purchase goods and services, they provide little information on the long-term ability of families to sustain themselves. The results of this survey will provide information on the net worth (wealth) of Canadian families, that is, the value of their assets less their debts.

    This paper examines the objectives of the survey, how the survey has changed since 1984, the types of questions being asked and information that will be provided, as well as other survey background. An accompanying table outlines the content of the questionnaire. The intent of this paper is to describe the work done to date and the next steps for this important subject.

    Release date: 1999-09-27

  • Notices and consultations: 13F0026M1999001
    Description:

    The main objectives of a new Canadian survey measuring asset and debt holding of families and individuals will be to update wealth information that is over one decade old; to improve the reliability of the wealth estimates; and, to provide a primary tool for analysing many important policy issues related to the distribution of assets and debts, future consumption possibilities, and savings behaviour that is of interest to governments, business and communities.

    This paper is the document that launched the development of the new asset and debt survey, subsequently renamed the Survey of Financial Security. It looks at the conceptual framework for the survey, including the appropriate unit of measurement (family, household or person) and discusses measurement issues such as establishing an accounting framework for assets and debts. The variables proposed for inclusion are also identified. The paper poses several questions to readers and asks for comments and feedback.

    Release date: 1999-03-23

  • Notices and consultations: 13F0026M1999002
    Description:

    This document summarizes the comments and feedback received on an earlier document: Towards a new Canadian asset and debt survey - A content discussion paper. The new asset and debt survey (now called the Survey of Financial Security) is to update the wealth information on Canadian families and unattached individuals. Since the last data collection was conducted in 1984, it was essential to include a consultative process in the development of the survey in order to obtain feedback on issues of concern and to define the conceptual framework for the survey.

    Comments on the content discussion paper are summarized by major theme and sections indicate how the suggestions are being incorporated into the survey or why they could not be incorporated. This paper also mentions the main objectives of the survey and provides an overview of the survey content, revised according to the feedback from the discussion paper.

    Release date: 1999-03-23

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 13F0026M1999003
    Description:

    This paper presents a proposal for conducting a Canadian asset and debt survey. The first step in preparing this proposal was the release, in February 1997, of a document entitled Towards a new Canadian asset and debt survey whose intent was to elicit feedback on the initial thinking regarding the content of the survey.

    This paper reviews the conceptual framework for a new asset and debt survey, data requirements, survey design, collection methodology and testing. It provides also an overview of the anticipated data processing system, describes the analysis and dissemination plan (analytical products and microdata files), and identifies the survey costs and major milestones. Finally, it presents the management/coordination approach used.

    Release date: 1999-03-23

  • Notices and consultations: 13F0026M1999004
    Description:

    During September and October 1997, the Questionnaire Design Resource Centre (QDRC) completed 10 focus groups and 4 in-depth interviews with respondents and 6 debriefing sessions with interviewers in a test of the proposed questionnaires and data collection methodology for the 1998 Asset and Debt Survey (now called the Survey of Financial Security, to be done in 1999).

    The main goals of the testing were: to evaluate the data collection methodology and survey instruments (including the introductory materials [guide] and questionnaires [Part 1: background information about family members, Part 2: questions on assets and debts]); to identify problem areas; to make recommendations to ensure that the final survey instruments are respondent-friendly and interview-friendly, that the questionnaires can be easily understood and accurately completed; and finally, to investigate how respondents recall information.

    This report summarizes the highlights of the study, including the recommendations based on the findings of the focus groups, in-depth interviews and debriefing sessions, as well as those from the experience of the QDRC in carrying out similar studies for other household surveys.

    Release date: 1999-03-23

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 71F0023X
    Description:

    This paper is an overview of the activities undertaken by Statistics Canada over the past several decades in the field of measuring and valuing unpaid work in all of its many forms. It was first prepared in the early 1990s when the Agency's accomplishments in the field of unpaid work were not as widely known as Statistics Canada would have liked. With each significant new achievement of the Agency, this note has been updated and further updates will be produced in step with the Agency's continuing outputs in this important area.

    Release date: 1999-01-28
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