This comparative study of the relationship between family economic background and adult outcomes in the United States and Canada addresses three questions. First, is there something to explain? We suggest that the existing literature finds that there are significant differences in the degree of...

The goal of this paper is to investigate the health status and health care utilization consequences of social transfers for the health of mothers, in particular lone mothers, in Canada and Norway. Studies from Europe and the US and a recent Canadian work suggest that married individuals are...

Using microdata from the Luxembourg Income Study, we assess 'time crunch' for families with children in Canada, Germany, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S. Both theory and empirical evidence suggest that both time and money are important inputs to the well-being of parents and children. We present...

Using cross-sections of microdata from Surveys of Consumer Finance and Surveys of Labour and Income Dynamics, we document changes in the availability of time and money in Canadian two-parent families between 1971 and 2006 as the paid work hours of mothers have increased. While long hours of paid...

Combines micro-data from seven LIS countries with macro/institutional variables (also provided by LIS) to test the implication of divorce-threat bargaining models of household behavior that 'extra-marital environmental parameters' should influence behavior.

The goal of this paper is to provide a descriptive comparison of economic outcomes for Canadian children, at the bottom, middle and top of the population income distribution. We use a very wide-angle camera, enabling us to provide a broad picture of differences/changes in families, policies and...

We examine whether there is an inequality of opportunity to achieve higher education, partially explained by aspirations for youth age 12-15 in economically vulnerable households. Using a unique Canadian dataset (2002-2008), we find that poverty is associated with reduced university aspirations...

This chapter compares Canadian policies for families with children under the age of three with policies available in eight other affluent countries (Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the US), three from each of Esping-Andersen's 'three worlds' of welfare capitalism....

When comparing economic well-being using income or expenditures, an equivalence scale is often used to adjust for differences in characteristics that affect needs. For example, a family of two is assumed to need more income than a single person, but not twice as much due to the economies of...