Using inter-jurisdictional differences in the implementation of the Family Allowance Program in Canada in the mid-1970s, this paper first shows that Quebec families with two or more children prior to being exposed to the program responded quite strongly to the added incentives in the short run...

Based on Statistics Canada's 1991 School Leavers Survey and its 1995 Follow-up, the objective of this paper is to assess the impact of working while in high school both on the probability of graduating from high school and on future wages. The results for both men and women show a strong...

This paper reviews a recent literature that extends the Rubinstein/Stahl bargaining model to the case of contract bargaining. Theoretical issues, such as the appropriate game form, existence, and uniqueness of equilibria, are discussed. The paper finishes with a brief overview of some...

This essay illustrates that is if Leonard J. Savage's (1972) small world assumption is relaxed, one can construct a theory of bounded rationality that incorporates some of the insights from recent work in cognitive psychology. The theory can be used to explain why contracts are incomplete and...

Typically, models that study the role of sunk costs suppose that incumbent firms face entry by a single firm each period. In this paper, the set of equilibrium market structures that result when all firms are free to enter or exit and set prices each period are characterized. The effect of sunk...

Over the last fifteen years, many researchers have attempted to explain the determinants and changes of wage inequality. I propose a simple procedure to decompose changes in the distribution of wages or in other distributions into three factors: changes in regression coefficients; the...

Canadian Second World War veterans benefited from an extensive educational program similar to the U.S. G.I. Bill. Because of differences in military enlistment rates, however, a much lower fraction of Quebec men were eligible for these benefits than men from other provinces. Building on this...

Standard economic models suggest that adverse demand shocks will lead to bigger employment losses if institutional factors prevent real wages from declining. Some analysts have argued that this insight explains the dichotomy between the United States, where real wages of less-skilled workers...