In this paper we document the pattern of change in age-earnings profiles across cohorts and evaluate its implications. Using synthetic cohorts from the Survey of Consumer Finances over the period 1971 to 1993, we show that the age-earnings profiles of Canadian men have been deteriorating for...

Over the last few decades, countries have experienced quite different patterns of productivity growth. In this paper, we emphasize the role of country level demographics in explaining these differences. In particular, looking over the period 1960-2002, we show that cross-country data support the...

The authors use regional and individual variation in unemployment insurance (UI) parameters to estimate the impact of UI incentives on job durations. In doing so, they distinguish between seasonal and nonseasonal jobs. The authors find evidence of substantial tailoring of job durations to UI...

This paper examines the effects of changes in Canadian immigration policy on the occupational composition of immigration. The authors focus on 1967 changes that created a regulatory system, including the point system, that still forms the framework of Canadian immigration policy. They find that...

We present new evidence on levels and trends in after-tax income inequality in Canada between 1980 and 2000. We argue that existing data sources may miss changes in the tails of the income distribution, and that many of the changes in the income distribution have been in the tails. For this...

We examine the wage patterns of Canadian less skilled male workers over the last quarter-century by organizing workers into job entry cohorts. We find entry wages for successive cohorts declined until 1997 and then began to recover. Wage profiles steepened for cohorts entering after 1997, but...

This paper provides a unifying framework for studying renegotiation of contracts in the presence of asymmetric information. We show that interim renegotiation does not constrain the set of contracts attainable with full commitment, regardless of whether renegotiation offers are made by the...

For both empirical and theoretical reasons, the mechanism by which existing efficiency-wage models link job rationing with turnover costs is unsatisfactory. This paper extends the standard turnover-efficiency-wage model by formally examining the determination of wages as the outcome of a...

Medium-run macroeconomics refers to aggregate economic phenomena that manifest over periods of 10 to 25 years. This area of research has emerged over the last decade as a new and distinct field of enquiry. In this paper, I overview a set of personal attempts aimed at understanding certain...