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This paper examines the effects of women’s educational attainment on the timing of parenthood across successive generations of women in Ghana. Given the more enhanced career opportunities in recent years, we argue that the opportunity cost of parenthood may be higher for contemporary educated women, and as such, they are expected to delay parenthood for longer periods than their counterparts in the past. Using data from the 1998 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, we found that while higher maternal education associates with delayed parenthood, significant cohort differences were noticeable. Consistent with our expectations, the effect of higher educational attainment was substantially greater among younger women, indicating a longer transition to parenthood. Implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study of earnings implications of person years lost life expectancy among Canada's aboriginal peoples. Overall, Canada has one of the world's highest national life expectancies. This benefit is not shared by Canada's aboriginal population, however, which has a life expectancy approximately seven years less than the general population. The aboriginal population also differs in that it has a higher fertility rate and higher mortality rates among infants and young adults. One of the consequences of the mortality differential is that the number of person years of lost life (PYLL) expectancy is large for the aboriginal community in comparison to the general population. While several studies have focused on the causes of differential mortality, this study examines some of the socio-economic consequences of differences in PYLL. Examining wage labor income, for example, determines that the PYLL differential translates into an expected wage and salary loss of approximately $1.56 billion.

This paper examines the earnings of foreign-born and native-born men in an attempt to evaluate whether the decline in the quality of Canadian immigrants is related to changes in the country-of-origin mix and the class (type) mix of immigrants. Based on a human capital interpretation, 'higher quality' immigrants are defined as immigrants who have smaller on-entry earnings differentials and have earnings that grow at a faster rate (relative to native-born Canadians). The analysis consists of two parts. The first part is based on individual data on earnings and socio-economic characteristics collected in the 1971 and 1986 Canadian Censuses. Earnings equations are estimated for 16 country-of-origin immigrant groups. These regressions are then used to construct a cohort-specific measure of immigrant quality based on the earnings differential between foreign-born and native-born Canadians. In the second part of the analysis, additional regression equations are estimated, pertaining to the period 1968 to 1985, that relate these Census-based measures of immigrant quality to the country-of-origin and class mix of immigrants. In this analysis, unpublished data, supplied by the Department of Employment and Immigration, describing the distribution of immigrants across the three main immigrant classes is used. Overall, the analysis confirms that there has been a sharp secular decline in the quality of Canadian immigrants and suggests that it is related to changes in both the country-of-origin and class mix of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blocked mobility or relative disadvantage thesis posits that because of relative disadvantages experienced by immigrants in the labour market in the host society, many will turn to self-employment as an alternative to wage-labour. Part of the difficulty with previous research in this area is the failure to distinguish between self-employment in professional and non-professional occupations. On the basis of the 1986 Canadian census data, our findings show that the blocked mobility thesis is supported in the case of immigrants with high educational credentials obtained from home countries, who have a higher likelihood of turning to self-employment in none professional occupations, compared to those with similar education levels among either the native-born or immigrants with Canadian education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, self-employment was perceived as a mechanism whereby immigrants could circumvent discriminatory practices in wage labor. More recent research by Borjas in the United States, however, suggests that this view is incorrect. Immigrants, particularly members of visible minorities, are disadvantaged in both the wage labor and the self-employed markets. This pattern has not been replicated in Canada, however; after controlling for several socioeconomic attributes, it is found that foreign-born, self-employed visible minority-group members are not at a disadvantage in relation to the majority population. Foreign-born visible minority group members earn less, however, in the wage labor force. In contrast, it was found that there is no statistically significant difference between native-born visible minority group members and others in the wage labor force, and that native-born, self-employed minority-group members may earn more than others in that market segment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines some of the central concerns expressed by residents over the presence of penal institutions within their community, and looks at some of the factors which may influence the type and intensity of those concerns. Using existing survey data collected in the lower Fraser Valley region of British Columbia, Canada, four generic factors of perceived impact are identified: concern for family safety; concern for general quality of life; concern for value of neighbourhood, and concern for neigh-bourhood instability. Three hypotheses are then examined, relating these four concerns to the respondents' history of victimization, physical proximity to the institutions, and current position in family life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]