This paper examines the evolution of the returns to human capital in Canada over the period 1980-2006. Most of the analysis is based on Census data, and on weekly wage and salary earnings of full-time workers. Our main finding is that the returns to education increased substantially for Canadian...

This paper shows that changes in the skill requirements of jobs are one way by which economic downturns affect job match quality. In doing so this paper makes two contributions to the literature. The first contribution is to document a stylized fact about the cyclicality of skill requirements...

Examples of educational mismatch and overqualifcation in the labour market can often be found in the same office building – the clerical worker with a bachelor’s degree reporting to a manager with a high school education – as an example. Some have argued that mismatch in...

When the Dow Jones stock index hit an all-time high on March 5, 2013, some commentators said that this surge in share prices indicated a breaking of the psychological barrier faced by markets since the Great Recession. But others noted just how volatile financial markets have been – the...

Le Supplément de revenu garanti (SRG) a largement contribué à la réduction de la pauvreté des personnes âgées au Canada, mais les futurs bénéficiaires du SRG atteignant leurs 64 ans devraient penser à deux fois avant de continuer de cotiser à un REER. Souvent, la meilleure solution...

We estimate the elasticity of reported income with respect to tax rates for high earners using sub-national variation across Canadian provinces. We argue this allows for better identification of tax elasticities than the existing literature. We find that elasticities of reported income at the...

According to Canadian taxfiler data, over the last thirty years there has been a surge in the income shares of the top 1%, top 0.1% and top 0.01% of income recipients, even with longitudinal smoothing by individual using three- or five-year moving averages. Top shares fell in 2008 and 2009, but...

Richard Shillington (1999, 2003) estimates that one-third of near-seniors have made Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSP) contributions in error as their asset holdings are low enough to suggest that they will likely be Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) recipients. Hence they are likely to...

The Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) has contributed significantly to the reduction of senior poverty in Canada, but prospective GIS recipients should think twice at age 64 about making an RRSP contribution. In many cases, the best move may even be withdrawing the whole RRSP. This is because...

Malgré une histoire construite avec l’immigration, les immigrants sont les personnes qui ont le plus de difficultés au Canada. D’après une nouvelle recherche récente, la proportion des immigrants récents (au Canada depuis 5 ans ou moins) et qui sont pauvres s’est constamment accrue,...