We investigate how family earnings instability evolved between the late 1980s and the late 1990s and how family income instability varies across segments of the (family-level) earnings distribution. We uncover four key patterns. First, among the subset of families who were intact over the...

This paper assesses the role played by changes in economic growth, employment earnings, and government transfers in the patterns of low-income intensity in Canada during the 1980s and the 1990s. We find that lowincome intensity was higher in most provinces during the 1990s than during the 1980s...

We examine the economic goals of current immigration policy and what role immigration should play in overall economic policy. We proceed by describing the economic goals of immigration policy throughout this century. We then describe current economically targeted elements of immigration policy...

I undertake a Rawlsian political economy exercise - namely, one in which economic institutions are judged by how well they match principles in theories of distributive justice. I contend that such an exercise is integrally related to empirical economics because most theories of justice emphasize...

Considerable concern has recently been expressed worldwide about growing income inequality. Much of the discussion, though, has been in general terms and focused on the US experience. To understand whether and how Canada ought to respond to this development, we need to be clear on the facts....

Human capital policy has come to be seen as something of a panacea: acting both as a necessary input for modern growth and an effective tool for redistribution. Canada has moved strongly in the direction of linking redistribution and human capital investment. In this paper, I investigate the...

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the substantial changes in tax and transfer programs and the movements in after-tax income inequality over the 1980s and 1990s. We show that in the 1980s, tax and transfer programs became more redistributive, offsetting substantial increases...