Vol.
23 No. 2 June 1997
Articles:
Language and Earnings in Quebec: Trends over Twenty Years, 1970-1990
Morton Stelcner and Daniel M. Shapiro
Earnings
differentials among Quebec's linguistic groups (francophones, anglophones,
and allophones) have been the subject of concern over the past three
decades.
Using
data from the 1991 Census, this paper examines linguistic earnings
disparities by gender in 1990, and compares the results to those obtained
from the 1971 and 1981 Census data. The main findings are that, since
the passage of Bill 101 in 1977, the earnings gap between (unilingual
and bilingual) anglophones and bilingual francophones has indeed closed.
However, the earnings situation of allophones (regardless of official
languages spoken) has worsened as did that of unilingual francophones.
Stuart Landon
High School Enrollment, Minimum Wages and Education SpendingThe impact
on high school enrollment of minimum wages and different types of
education spending is examined empirically using Canadian provincial-level
data. Increases in the minimum wage are shown to have a significant
negative effect on the enrollment rates of 16- and 17-year-old males
and 17-year-old females. The empirical estimates imply that a 50 cent
increase in the hourly minimum wage causes a 0.7 percentage point
fall in the percent of 16- and 17-year-olds enrolled in school (a
decline that, in Ontario, would amount to more than 1,700 students).
The results also indicate that lower student-teacher ratios, better
paid teachers, more administrative spending, increased spending on
instructional supplies, and increases in other school board operating
expenditures do not have a systematic effect on enrollment rates.
Third-Party Advertising and Electoral Democracy: The Political
Theory of the Alberta Court of Appeal in Somerville v. Canada (Attorney
General) [1996]
Herman Bakvis and Jennifer Smith
As
the decision in Somerville v. Canada (Attorney General) [1996] indicates,
the courts are continuing to prove hostile to the restrictions on
third-party or independent spending that are set out in the Canada
Elections Act. The difficulty is that these restrictions are part
of a larger election-expenses regime that is designed to encourage
fairness in the electoral competition between parties and candidates.
Through an examination of the Somerville case, this paper argues that
if the restrictions on third-party spending are eliminated, then the
restrictions on parties and candidates are sure to fall as well, and
Canadian elections will come to resemble an unregulated, free-for-all.
Ironically, under these conditions the position of political parties
may well be strengthened in relation to interest groups as the latter
become conduits for campaign finance rather than active and visable
participants in the electoral process.
Earnings of Immigrant Classes in the Early 1980s in Canada: A Re-examination
Arnold de Silva
It is widely believed that immigrants admitted on compassionate grounds
such as refugees tend to perform poorly compared with immigrants selected
for their skills. Recently, Statistics Canada has assembled a longitudinal
Immigration Database (IMBD) which provides a unique opportunity to
examine whether the above view is correct. Relying on a subsample
of male immigrants drawn from IMBD, the present study finds evidence
of a rapid convergence in earnings among immigrant classes over time.
From a policy perspective, the main conclusion is that age at entry
is probably more important than many of the other immigrant attributes
reported at landing.
Comments
Anwar Shah,Econometric Analysis and Public Policy: The Case of
Fiscal Need Assessment
Robert McLarty
R.M. McLarty, Econometric Analysis and Public Policy: The Case
of Fiscal Need Assessment A Reply
Michael Krashinsky and Harry A. Krashinsky
Do English Canadian Hockey Teams Discriminate Against French Canadian
Players?: A Comment on `Salary Discrimination in the National Hockey
League'
Neil Longley
Do English Canadian Hockey Teams Discriminate Against French
Canadian Players?: A Reply
