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Transferring income to families with children has long been a basic Canadian social policy. Though motivated by a range of goals, a central expectation has been that higher family income will lead to better child outcomes, especially in low-income families. This paper presents a synthesis of Canadian research estimating the effect of household income on measures of child development and well-being. While child outcomes and socioeconomic status (SES) are highly correlated, the effect of income on child outcomes, controlling for other SES factors, is found to be statistically significant but of much smaller magnitude than correlation alone indicates. The paper also discusses key theoretical and methodological issues in this area of research, identifies areas for future research, and draws implications for public policy design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments are increasingly concerned that current levels of water use are unsustainable, particularly in the face of threats posed by climate change. This paper examines recent research on water-using innovation in three key water-using sectors (residential, manufacturing, and agriculture) for evidence to support the call for greater reliance on economic instruments as part of the suite of policy measures to promote water innovation, conservation, and efficiency. The findings illustrate the need to understand water’s role in production (industrial, agricultural, and household) and the way changes in unit costs of other inputs (particularly energy and capital) influence innovation. In addition, the available research indicates that policies based on economic instruments should be tailored to the specific features and contexts of the different water-using sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I provide evidence that suggests selective retirement does not bias estimates of wage losses due to displacement. I estimate the magnitude of hourly wage losses faced by workers who are displaced when over the age of 50. I account for the self-selection of older workers into retirement, which prevents observation of some workers' potential wage losses. The results confirm that high tenured older workers face large wage losses following displacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of this paper are (a) to estimate the overall losses to the beef industry in Canada from BSE by identifying and estimating the increased costs and reduced revenues to the industry from May 2003 to September 2007; and (b) to assess the extent to which compensation paid by federal and provincial governments to producers of cattle and beef products covered these losses. The analysis suggests that in aggregate, the industry in Canada was fully indemnified through federal and provincial assistance programs, but the gains or losses to various sectors within the beef industry cannot be identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the child sample of Statistics Canada's 2001 Participation and Activity Limitations Survey to study the economic costs of caring for children with disabilities in Canada. Both explicit out-of-pocket expenditures and implicit costs in the form of foregone labour market opportunities are considered. Results indicate that, despite universal health insurance in Canada, a majority of families of children with disabilities incur significant economic costs. Additional financial support might be offered, particularly when the child's condition is severe, and costly therapy and specialized aids could be covered. Our results also support the need for respite as well as help in balancing work and caregiving for Canadian parents of children with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at a further option which thus far appears not to have entered the debate on the long-standing issue of interprovincial barriers. Labelled the subnational World Trade Organization (WTO) approach, it is based on the simple idea of seeking the agreement of the Canadian provinces (and WTO members) to extend existing WTO disciplines to the provincial level. This implies that the principles of Most Favoured Nation and National Treatment, as well as of WTO dispute settlement, would apply directly to interprovincial trade in goods and services through the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and that the framework of the General Agreement on Trade and Services would allow for scheduling of commitments, including on labour mobility under mode 4. The Agreements on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures would also apply, as would all other WTO agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to identify the channels through which specialization in resource-intensive production had an impact on the performance of the aggregate Canadian economy over the 1970-2005 period. As a whole, the Canadian resource sector appears to have been making substantial direct and indirect contributions to aggregate economic performance since 1970, and we can find little evidence of strong or consistent crowding-out effects. There are, however, some important caveats. In particular, the significance of the resource sector's contributions was strongly influenced by the key role played by the energy extraction industries. [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]