Analysis

Description:

This paper gives an overview of the different sources of errors that occur with this methodology and presents some results on the impact of this mixed approach. The research has focused on micro-comparisons and has attempted to quantify the impact on measures of change.

Description:

This paper sets out a number of summary analyses that support the recommendation to draw a top up sample in the integration of Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) and Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) data.

Description:

The objectives of this paper are to determine the empirical relationships between economic performance, transfers and low income among Canadian families, and to explore whether these relationships have changed over time. Similar recent studies in the US find a weakening in the relationship between economic growth and low income reduction over the past 25 years. Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances of Statistics Canada, we find that there is a statistically significant negative relationship between economic performance and the incidence of low income among families in Canada for the period from 1973 to 1995. Government transfers are also found to lift families above the low income threshold. These results are robust across different family types and for three different measures of low income.

We also find a weakening in the relationship between improved economic performance and low income reduction for most family types between 1973 and 1995, and for all family types after 1980. This weakening is associated with rising pre-transfer income inequality among families. Increasing inequality has also reduced the negative impact of transfers on low income rates.

Description:

This paper documents job turnover and labour market adjustment activities in the Ontario economy from 1978 to 1993. The following highlights the major findings. Both the permanent layoff rate and the total permanent separation rate vary substantially from one industry to another. In 1992, the permanent layoff and total permanent separation rates ranged from 27.3% and 34.2% in construction to only 1.4% and 9.3% in public services, respectively. The permanent layoff rate and the total permanent separation rate also differ noticeably by gender, age and firm size - in most industries, the rates are higher among male workers than among females, higher among younger workers, and higher among smaller employers.

While the permanent layoff rate increases during business cycle downturns and decreases during business cycle upswings, the reverse trend is observed with the total permanent separation rate. This is because the quit rate and the other permanent separation rate both decline during downturns and rise during upswings, more than offsetting the opposite trend associated with the permanent layoff rate.

These univariate-tabulation findings are confirmed in the multi-variate logistic regression results on the statistical determinants of permanent layoffs and total permanent separations. In most industries, after controlling for gender, age, firm size and time periods, the estimated likelihood of permanent layoffs is lower among female workers, decreases significantly with age and firm size, increases during recessions and decreases during recovery and expansion in most industries. The patterns of estimated incidence of total permanent separations are very similar to those of permanent layoffs except that total permanent separations decline during business cycle downturns and climb during business cycle upswings.

Permanently separated workers have had a much more difficult time in finding employment during the most recent recession than any other time in the past 15 years. Almost 40% of those who lost or left a job in 1989 did not have a job in 1993. This is in marked contrast with the experience of the early 1980s, when 29% of permanently separated workers were jobless 3 years after the separation. A very similar trend is found when the analysis is applied to labour market transitions among permanently laid-off workers.

There is a great deal of out-of-province migration among permanently separated workers who did find a job. Nearly 45% of those who lost or left a job in 1989 and found a job in 1993 were employed outside of Ontario. An identical proportion of permanently laid-off workers is found to be employed in other provinces.

Description: Objectives

This article illustrates analytical uses of multiple-cause-of-deathdata, which reflect all causes entered on the death certificate, notonly the single, underlying cause. Heart diseases are used as anexample.

Data sources

Complete multiple-cause-of-death data were obtained fromNewfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, NewBrunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Yukon and the NorthwestTerritories; sample data were provided for Quebec and Ontario.The records represent 19% of deaths that occurred in Canadafrom 1990 to 1993.

Description: The debate over problems in measuring inflation is not new. It has recently been revived by the publication of a report by an Advisory Commission to the U.S. Senate. The Commission, chaired by Michael J. Boskin, found that the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) overestimates inflation by 1.1 percentage points a year. This article shows that the potential bias in the French CPI is on a far lower order of magnitude. It is hard to summarize the changes in a multitude of prices with a single figure. Even in the best-case theoretical scenario - a single consumer faced with a spending decision - the treatment of substitutions between existing products raises important problems. Nevertheless, it is possible to provide a fairly accurate description of the various possible alternatives and the statistical procedures used in France largely shield the country's index from criticism on this point. The introduction of new products creates serious difficulties that have not been entirely resolved in the United States, in France, or elsewhere: "new products" is used here in the broad sense to denote (1) genuinely new products on the market and (2) products already sold elsewhere but introduced in a new sales outlet, replacing existing products or not. The Boskin Commission estimates the upward bias in the U.S. CPI due to new products at 0.6 percentage points per year. The Commission's claim rest on fragile and probably exaggerated estimates. Our conclusion converges with the opinion of several U.S. statisticians.

Description:

For historical reasons, the best known life tables and those most often used are period tables. They are built using death rates by age for a short period of observation (often a single year) and have as their purpose to represent the status of mortality for this period. The survivors and deaths appearing in their columns are in a way abstractions rather than reality. It is thus erroneous to believe that the life table for a given year (for example, 1995) serves in any way whatever to predict the rate at which those born that year will pass away and, hence, of the average length of the life that they have just begun. With rare exceptions, the average number of years lived by individuals has always been longer than the life expectancy found in the life table constructed for the year of their birth. This is due to the fact that period tables are established using the risks of death by age prevailing in that year. But the ceaseless battle against death reduces these risks year after year for these ages and, by growing older, people benefit from these successive gains.

To reconstitute (or foresee) the rate at which the members of a cohort have (or will) really pass away, it is necessary to deploy very long series of death rates by age and to possess reliable indicators of missing data, and then to adjust them to establish the actual experience of the persons in a cohort. Built in exactly the same way as period tables, these tables are naturally called cohort tables, but comparing observations of their parameters yields conclusions of a different kind.

Description:

Canada is an active competitor in the global economy, an arena in which our knowledge and skills are vital assets. At a time when goods, services and investment flow more freely into and out of the country, much of our international success comes from our knowledge-intensive industries. As a result, the need for skilled workers has intensified and higher education has become an even more important determinant of Canada's overall competitiveness and economic well-being than in the past. Canada's postsecondary education system encompasses universities, colleges and trade/vocational institutions. In 1995 there were 1.67 million part-time and full-time postsecondary students, 52% of whom attended university. Universities, who finances are the focus of this article, therefore serve as major providers of the higher education that is critical to our prosperity.

Description:

Many studies have examined the influence of children's upbringing, and home and school experiences on their development. These studies, however, often suffer from several limitations. They either examine children in other countries, use local samples that are not representative of Canadian children in general, or examine a limited number of factors in a single area of development.

Description:

This paper summarizes major changes implemented in the balance of payments and international investment position.

Description:

This paper gives an overview of the different sources of errors that occur with this methodology and presents some results on the impact of this mixed approach. The research has focused on micro-comparisons and has attempted to quantify the impact on measures of change.

Description:

This paper sets out a number of summary analyses that support the recommendation to draw a top up sample in the integration of Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) and Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) data.

Description:

The objectives of this paper are to determine the empirical relationships between economic performance, transfers and low income among Canadian families, and to explore whether these relationships have changed over time. Similar recent studies in the US find a weakening in the relationship between economic growth and low income reduction over the past 25 years. Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances of Statistics Canada, we find that there is a statistically significant negative relationship between economic performance and the incidence of low income among families in Canada for the period from 1973 to 1995. Government transfers are also found to lift families above the low income threshold. These results are robust across different family types and for three different measures of low income.

We also find a weakening in the relationship between improved economic performance and low income reduction for most family types between 1973 and 1995, and for all family types after 1980. This weakening is associated with rising pre-transfer income inequality among families. Increasing inequality has also reduced the negative impact of transfers on low income rates.

Description:

This paper documents job turnover and labour market adjustment activities in the Ontario economy from 1978 to 1993. The following highlights the major findings. Both the permanent layoff rate and the total permanent separation rate vary substantially from one industry to another. In 1992, the permanent layoff and total permanent separation rates ranged from 27.3% and 34.2% in construction to only 1.4% and 9.3% in public services, respectively. The permanent layoff rate and the total permanent separation rate also differ noticeably by gender, age and firm size - in most industries, the rates are higher among male workers than among females, higher among younger workers, and higher among smaller employers.

While the permanent layoff rate increases during business cycle downturns and decreases during business cycle upswings, the reverse trend is observed with the total permanent separation rate. This is because the quit rate and the other permanent separation rate both decline during downturns and rise during upswings, more than offsetting the opposite trend associated with the permanent layoff rate.

These univariate-tabulation findings are confirmed in the multi-variate logistic regression results on the statistical determinants of permanent layoffs and total permanent separations. In most industries, after controlling for gender, age, firm size and time periods, the estimated likelihood of permanent layoffs is lower among female workers, decreases significantly with age and firm size, increases during recessions and decreases during recovery and expansion in most industries. The patterns of estimated incidence of total permanent separations are very similar to those of permanent layoffs except that total permanent separations decline during business cycle downturns and climb during business cycle upswings.

Permanently separated workers have had a much more difficult time in finding employment during the most recent recession than any other time in the past 15 years. Almost 40% of those who lost or left a job in 1989 did not have a job in 1993. This is in marked contrast with the experience of the early 1980s, when 29% of permanently separated workers were jobless 3 years after the separation. A very similar trend is found when the analysis is applied to labour market transitions among permanently laid-off workers.

There is a great deal of out-of-province migration among permanently separated workers who did find a job. Nearly 45% of those who lost or left a job in 1989 and found a job in 1993 were employed outside of Ontario. An identical proportion of permanently laid-off workers is found to be employed in other provinces.

Description: Objectives

This article illustrates analytical uses of multiple-cause-of-deathdata, which reflect all causes entered on the death certificate, notonly the single, underlying cause. Heart diseases are used as anexample.

Data sources

Complete multiple-cause-of-death data were obtained fromNewfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, NewBrunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Yukon and the NorthwestTerritories; sample data were provided for Quebec and Ontario.The records represent 19% of deaths that occurred in Canadafrom 1990 to 1993.

Description: The debate over problems in measuring inflation is not new. It has recently been revived by the publication of a report by an Advisory Commission to the U.S. Senate. The Commission, chaired by Michael J. Boskin, found that the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) overestimates inflation by 1.1 percentage points a year. This article shows that the potential bias in the French CPI is on a far lower order of magnitude. It is hard to summarize the changes in a multitude of prices with a single figure. Even in the best-case theoretical scenario - a single consumer faced with a spending decision - the treatment of substitutions between existing products raises important problems. Nevertheless, it is possible to provide a fairly accurate description of the various possible alternatives and the statistical procedures used in France largely shield the country's index from criticism on this point. The introduction of new products creates serious difficulties that have not been entirely resolved in the United States, in France, or elsewhere: "new products" is used here in the broad sense to denote (1) genuinely new products on the market and (2) products already sold elsewhere but introduced in a new sales outlet, replacing existing products or not. The Boskin Commission estimates the upward bias in the U.S. CPI due to new products at 0.6 percentage points per year. The Commission's claim rest on fragile and probably exaggerated estimates. Our conclusion converges with the opinion of several U.S. statisticians.

Description:

For historical reasons, the best known life tables and those most often used are period tables. They are built using death rates by age for a short period of observation (often a single year) and have as their purpose to represent the status of mortality for this period. The survivors and deaths appearing in their columns are in a way abstractions rather than reality. It is thus erroneous to believe that the life table for a given year (for example, 1995) serves in any way whatever to predict the rate at which those born that year will pass away and, hence, of the average length of the life that they have just begun. With rare exceptions, the average number of years lived by individuals has always been longer than the life expectancy found in the life table constructed for the year of their birth. This is due to the fact that period tables are established using the risks of death by age prevailing in that year. But the ceaseless battle against death reduces these risks year after year for these ages and, by growing older, people benefit from these successive gains.

To reconstitute (or foresee) the rate at which the members of a cohort have (or will) really pass away, it is necessary to deploy very long series of death rates by age and to possess reliable indicators of missing data, and then to adjust them to establish the actual experience of the persons in a cohort. Built in exactly the same way as period tables, these tables are naturally called cohort tables, but comparing observations of their parameters yields conclusions of a different kind.

Description:

Canada is an active competitor in the global economy, an arena in which our knowledge and skills are vital assets. At a time when goods, services and investment flow more freely into and out of the country, much of our international success comes from our knowledge-intensive industries. As a result, the need for skilled workers has intensified and higher education has become an even more important determinant of Canada's overall competitiveness and economic well-being than in the past. Canada's postsecondary education system encompasses universities, colleges and trade/vocational institutions. In 1995 there were 1.67 million part-time and full-time postsecondary students, 52% of whom attended university. Universities, who finances are the focus of this article, therefore serve as major providers of the higher education that is critical to our prosperity.

Description:

Many studies have examined the influence of children's upbringing, and home and school experiences on their development. These studies, however, often suffer from several limitations. They either examine children in other countries, use local samples that are not representative of Canadian children in general, or examine a limited number of factors in a single area of development.

Description:

This paper summarizes major changes implemented in the balance of payments and international investment position.