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Work by Aschauer (1989) triggered a debate in the United States on the role played by public capital in determining productivity and growth; more recently, infrastructure has become an issue in the Canadian public policy debate. This paper sheds some light on this debate by addressing three questions: (i) How large is the stock of public infrastructure in Canada? (ii) What are the main components of that infrastructure? (iii) How has that infrastructure evolved over the last 40 years? The paper also examines the impact of public infrastructure on Canada's standard of living and on the performance of the business sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is essentially twofold. The first aim is to establish the demographic patterns and social trends which characterize contemporary grandparenthood in Canada using nationally representative data from the 1990 and 1995 General Social Surveys of Canada. Patterns characterizing and influencing grandparenthood such as the prevalence of grandparenthood, multiple generation families, step- grandparenthood and the availability of grandparents and grandchildren are examined. Analysis also focuses on rates of intergenerational cohabitation and surrogate parenting by grandparents, as well as the intersection of grandparenthood and other family and work-related roles. The second aim of the paper--where methodologically possible--is to provide a comparative analysis of Canadian and American trends, thereby placing findings within a North American context. Canadian families are presently undergoing processes of transformation and redefinition, generally assuming more heterogeneity in size and structure. Increasing life expectancy, decreasing fertility, changing gender roles, patterns of work and of marriage and divorce, all join to influence family structure and consequently, grandparenthood.

This paper compares the public indebtedness of the Canadian provinces and the US states (including a share of the federal debt) over the 2000–2007 period. It presents rankings of the most indebted subnational jurisdictions based on five public debt concepts. Among the provinces, Quebec (with the lowest average rank) and Alberta (with the highest average rank) display the most stable position across the rankings. All other provinces show important fluctuations in their position in the rankings. Hence, allocating the federal debt to subnational states and the specific debt concept being considered significantly influence the rankings, quite spectacularly in some instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs a unique large-scale longitudinal (1997–2005) dataset to investigate the pattern of foreign market entry by 6,079 Canadian exporters. We have found that fewer firms are choosing the United States as their initial export destination. This trend suggests that a growing number of firms are not following the traditional stage model of internationalization. Furthermore, our results suggest that government support should be targeted towards young and small Canadian-controlled firms, since they are more likely than established firms to encounter barriers and to gain benefits from exporting to a wider range of foreign markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a decomposition of the changes in the Canada-US unemployment rate gap using measures of the flow rates into unemployment (the inflow hazard) and out of unemployment (the outflow hazard). The estimates indicate that most of the changes in the unemployment rate gap between 1981 and 2009 are due to changes in the outflow hazard (i.e., the duration of unemployment spells). The relative importance of the inflow and outflow hazard effects on the unemployment rate gap changes over time, but the outflow hazard tends to account for most of the changes in the unemployment rate gap since 1997. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares changes in relative wages of university educated new immigrant workers in Canada and the United States over the period 1980-2005 and finds that outcomes were generally superior in the United States. Wages of university educated new immigrants declined relative to domestic born university graduates over the study period in Canada but rose between 1990 and 2000 in the United States. The university wage premium for new immigrants was similar in both countries in 1980 but by 2000 was considerably higher in the United States. Accounting for compositional shifts did not alter these basic results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the re-emergence of delays as a source of concern at the Canada-US border. We reassess their economic impacts in light of new economic research and conduct model-based numerical simulations to estimate the regional composition of trade impacts and welfare costs within Canada. We find ample reason for concern about the re-emergence of these delays, as the economic consequences are likely to be particularly acute for Ontario and Quebec. Our findings have significant public policy relevance to Canada at both national and regional levels given the current renewed interests in border protection issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I quantify the effect of the tightening of the security precautions post-9/11 on the volume of cross-border shopping from Canada into the United States. Using an extended version of the cross-border shopping model of Ferris (2000), the results suggest that the events of September 11th, 2001, precipitated a drop of between 300,000 and 600,000 same-day cross-border travellers per month or roughly a quarter of the previous volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence against the Aged (VAA) can take on the form of psychological, physical, sexual, economic abuse or neglect. The under-reporting of VAA is a major problem, although both Canadian and USA studies show that the consequences of this crime are very serious. Moreover, although the rates may be stable (5-10%), the numbers are rising due to the aging of the Canadian and USA populations. In this paper, I introduce an integrated conceptual model for predicting VAA, which goes beyond intimate partner violence. The model also suggests that struggles against VAA must simultaneously occur at the personal, social and structural dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines interprovincial and cross-border migration incentives brought about by the Canadian and US tax systems for first-time university graduates in 2006. To illustrate the differences in the systems, effective tax rates (ETRs) on human capital are calculated. Results show that Canadian students face greater tax-side incentives to migrate after graduation, when compared to their US counterparts, and provincial tax structures can have a significant impact on interprovincial migration incentives. The results support policy initiatives aimed at reducing taxation of returns to education as a way of reducing brain drain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of researchers and policy-makers concern themselves with the possible effects of living in areas with high concentrations of poverty. This paper provides an overview of such literature from a Canadian policy perspective. I draw three conclusions. First, household exposure to concentrated poverty is substantially less than in the United States. Second, much of the existing Canadian research on neighbourhood effects relies on regression analysis, which is prone to bias and misinterpretation. Third, the most persuasive research to date suggests that residential environment matters most to an individual's mental health and exposure to crime, but has little influence on self-sufficiency or child development. Smaller spheres of interaction, such as at the classroom or roommate level, appear to matter more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the reasons for the Canada-US labour productivity gap, which is mainly explained by the multifactor productivity (MFP) gap. Based on panel data for 41 industries, the regression results show that differences in the machinery and equipment (M&E) capital-labour ratio, trade openness, and capacity utilization explain differences in the Canada-US MFP gap across industries. The M&E capital intensity gap is the dominant source of the MFP gap. Lower wages, R&D intensity, and skills levels, as well as higher investment goods prices in Canada are the major determinants of the M&E capital intensity gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The federal government has implemented an earned income tax credit--what it has called the Working Income Tax Benefit--in the 2007 Budget. Edmund Phelps argued that the earned income tax credit in the United States should be replaced with an employment subsidy. This paper assesses the importance of Phelps' concern, and related issues, for Canada. This debate is important for two reasons: the plight of those blocked by the "welfare wall" is dire, and the entire community has an interest in lower structural unemployment in an environment that involves an aging population and an accompanying labour shortage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article synthesizes what we know and do not know about the links between family work arrangements and child development, drawing on research from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The paper reviews the evidence about how parental employment affects children's cognitive development, social and emotional development, and health; summarizes knowledge gaps; and makes recommendations for future Canadian policy-oriented research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the competitive position of Canadian industries vis-à-vis their American counterparts. Our results suggest that recent good economic news and a strong trade performance mask Canada's competitiveness difficulties. The export surge and a big increase in the trade surplus were largely the result of a strong US economy and a large real depreciation of the Canadian dollar vis-à-vis the US dollar. but were not due to any improvement in underlying competitiveness. As a matter of fact, Canada lost substantial ground to the United States in productivity, the fundamental determinant of the underlying competitiveness. Canada's relatively weak performance in terms of capital accumulation, innovation, highly skilled labour, greater importance of small-sized firms in the economy and a slower shift to New Economy industries all have contributed to its productivity and competitiveness difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at changes in hourly wages and hours worked per week of prime-age males in different skill groups (measured by earnings quintile) in the United States and Canada from 1981 to 1997. The analysis reveals that increases in hourly wage inequality are primarily responsible for increases in weekly earnings inequality in both countries. Increases in the dispersion of hours worked per week play a more important part in explaining the increase in earnings inequality in Canada than in the United States. High-skill workers experienced increases in earnings growth due to increases in hours and, at least for the US, increases in wages. In contrast, low-skill workers experienced declines in earnings growth due to decreases in wages and hours. This evidence is consistent with a skill-biased demand shock. In Canada a larger percentage of the reduction in earnings of low-skill workers is accounted for by declining hours. This evidence suggests a higher degree of downward wage rigidity in Canada than in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The family life cycle construct focuses upon major transition events in family formation, development, and dissolution. This paper provides an analysis of selected aspects of marital dissolution in Canada and the United States over the past six decades. In both countries, dissolution of marriages due to death have declined while dissolutions due to divorce have increased. Since the 1960's, divorce has been increasingly replacing death as a dissolver of marriages. In contrast to the United States, death still dissolves more marriages in Canada per year than divorce. Given these trends it is anticipated that Canada will follow the American pattern, in that divorce will become the primary contributor to marital dissolution. Implications of these changes for children of dissolved marriages, the phenomenon of remarriage, and the viability of the family life construct are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]