Employee Training in Canada

In this paper we first analyze the determinants of training using data from the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS). We find that education plays a key role in the receipt of all forms of training except in the case of employer-sponsored training. We also find substantial differences across demographic groups in the relationship between literacy skills and training. In the second part of the paper we merge the 1994 IALS to the 2003 IALSS and perform an analysis of the impact of the Quebec policy introduced in 1995 by which employers are required to devote at least 1% of the payroll to training activities. In the case of males we find no effect of the policy on the incidence of employer-sponsored training. On the other hand, Quebec females did experience a very large relative increase in training incidence between 1994 and 2003. However, the magnitude of the estimates is much too large to be plausibly caused by the policy given its modest scale. We show evidence of a significant relative increase in female employment rates in Quebec that could explain part -but probably not all-of the large increase in female employer-sponsored training.Literacy, Employer Training, Payroll Tax

Occupational Gender Composition and Wages in Canada: 1987-1988

The relationship between occupational gender composition and wages is the basis of pay equity/comparable worth legislation. A number of previous studies have examined this relationship in US data, identifying some of the determinants of low wages in ``female jobs'' well as important limitations of public policy in this area. There is little evidence, however, from other jurisdictions. This omission is particularly disturbing in the case of Canada, which now has some of the most extensive pay equity legislation in the world. In this paper we provide a comprehensive picture, circa the late 1980's, of the occupational gender segregation in Canada and its consequences for wages. The sample period precedes many provincial pay equity initiatives and thus the results should provide a baseline for the evaluation of this legislation. We find that the estimated wage penalties in female jobs in Canada are generally much smaller than the estimates for the United States. Although there is some heterogeneity across worker groups on average, the link between female wages and gender composition is small and not statistically significant.

Occupational Gender Segregation and Women's Wages in Canada: An Historical Perspective

We document the evolution of occupational gender segregation and its implications for women's labour market outcomes over the twentieth century. The first half of the century saw a considerable decline in vertical segregation as women moved out of domestic and manufacturing work into clerical work. This created a substantial amount of horizontal segregation that persists to this day. To study the effects of occupational segregation on the gender gap, we introduce a decomposition technique that divides the gap into between-occupation and within-occupation components. Since the 1990s the component attributable to within-occupation wage differentials has become predominant. Nous traçons un portrait de l'évolution de la ségrégation professionnelle selon le sexe au 20ième siècle, et de ses conséquences sur la condition féminine dans le marché du travail. Dans la première partie du 20ième siècle, la ségrégation professionnelle hiérarchique ou verticale a considérablement déclinée alors que les travailleuses quittaient les emplois de domestique et du secteur manufacturier en faveur des emplois de bureau. Ceci créa néanmoins une importante ségrégation professionnelle horizontale qui persiste jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Pour étudier les effets de la ségrégation professionnelle sur l'écart salarial selon le sexe, nous présentons une technique de décomposition qui divise l'écart salarial en deux composantes: l'une due aux différences intra-occupations et l'autre due aux différences inter-occupations. Depuis le début des années 90, la composante intra-occupation est prédominante.Occupational segregation, gender wage gap, pay equity, economic history, Ségrégation professionnelle, équité salariale, écart salarial selon le sexe, histoire économique

L’impact des règles de prêts hypothécaires sur l’offre de travail des femmes au Canada : évidence paramétrique et non paramétrique

Cet article utilise des statistiques descriptives, des régressions flexibles de type noyau et des modèles à formes réduites pour montrer que des variables reliées aux conditions hypothécaires, en particulier une variable qui capture les exigences de revenu relatives aux prêts hypothécaires, ont un impact important sur l’offre de travail des femmes au Canada. Dans un modèle à formes réduites du nombre de semaines travaillées par l’épouse, l’impact positif de cette contrainte à l’emprunt excède l’effet négatif de la variable enfants d’âge préscolaire. Ce résultat ne peut être attribué à un problème d’endogénéité des variables hypothécaires. En effet, on ne peut rejeter l’exogénéité faible de la variable qui capture le test du revenu de la procédure d’accès au prêt hypothécaire, lorsqu’on utilise une procédure à deux étapes qui se sert des résidus généralisés pour effectuer un test de spécification à la Hausman.This paper use descriptive statistics, kernel regressions and reduced-form analyses to show that mortgage related variables, in particular a variable believed to capture the earnings test of mortgage lending rules, have an important impact on the labor supply of married women in Canada. In a reduced-form weeks-worked equation for wives, the positive impact of the earnings test is shown to exceed the negative effect of young children. This result cannot be attributed to the potential endogeneity of mortgage variables since it is not possible to reject the weak exogeneity of the earnings test using a two-stage procedure that relies on generalized residuals to perform a Hausman type specification test

Occupational Tasks and Changes in the Wage Structure

This paper argues that changes in the returns to occupational tasks have contributed to changes in the wage distribution over the last three decades. Using Current Population Survey (CPS) data, we first show that the 1990s polarization of wages is explained by changes in wage setting between and within occupations, which are well captured by tasks measures linked to technological change and offshorability. Using a decomposition based on Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2009), we find that technological change and deunionization played a central role in the 1980s and 1990s, while offshorability became an important factor from the 1990s onwards.wage inequality, polarization, occupational tasks, offshoring, RIF-regressions

Exploring Prayer Functions and Posttraumatic Growth Among Informal Caregivers in Hospice Settings

Posttraumatic growth is a positive psychological transformation resulting from the struggle to cope with a challenging life event. There is a significant association between prayer coping functions and posttraumatic growth, but its process remains unclear and studies on informal hospice caregivers are scarce. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational, cross-sectional study was to explore the relationship between prayer functions and posttraumatic growth among informal caregivers while considering differences due to the caregiving environment and prayer practices. The shattered assumptions theory and model of growth in grief were used as a theoretical framework to evaluate the relationship between prayer functions, using the Prayer Functions Scale, and posttraumatic growth, using the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, among 255 informal caregivers who cared for their terminally ill loved ones in home or hospital hospice settings. Hierarchical linear regression revealed a statistically significant relationship between the prayer functions subscale, praying for calm and focus, and overall posttraumatic growth, while controlling for age group and gender. Multivariate test results indicated statistically significant differences between a) home and hospital informal hospice caregivers in posttraumatic growth subscales: new possibilities, spiritual change, and appreciation of life, and b) informal hospice caregivers who prayed and did not pray in posttraumatic growth subscales: relating to others, new possibilities, and spiritual change. These results may afford healthcare providers, researchers, and policy makers a deeper awareness of prayer functions that encourage posttraumatic growth and contribute to positive social change

Unconditional Quantile Regressions

We propose a new regression method to estimate the impact of explanatory variables on quantiles of the unconditional distribution of an outcome variable. The proposed method consists of running a regression of the (recentered) influence function (RIF) of the unconditional quantile on the explanatory variables. The influence function is a widely used tool in robust estimation that can easily be computed for each quantile of interest. We show how standard partial effects, as well as policy effects, can be estimated using our regression approach. We propose three different regression estimators based on a standard OLS regression (RIFOLS), a Logit regression (RIF-Logit), and a nonparametric Logit regression (RIFNP). We also discuss how our approach can be generalized to other distributional statistics besides quantiles.Influence Functions, Unconditional Quantile, Quantile Regressions.

Occupational Gender Segregation and Women's Wages in Canada: An Historical Perspective

Nous traçons un portrait de l'évolution de la ségrégation professionnelle selon le sexe au 20ième siècle, et de ses conséquences sur la condition féminine dans le marché du travail. Dans la première partie du 20ième siècle, la ségrégation professionnelle hiérarchique ou verticale a considérablement déclinée alors que les travailleuses quittaient les emplois de domestique et du secteur manufacturier en faveur des emplois de bureau. Ceci créa néanmoins une importante ségrégation professionnelle horizontale qui persiste jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Pour étudier les effets de la ségrégation professionnelle sur l'écart salarial selon le sexe, nous présentons une technique de décomposition qui divise l'écart salarial en deux composantes: l'une due aux différences intra-occupations et l'autre due aux différences inter-occupations. Depuis le début des années 90, la composante intra-occupation est prédominante.We document the evolution of occupational gender segregation and its implications for women's labour market outcomes over the twentieth century. The first half of the century saw a considerable decline in vertical segregation as women moved out of domestic and manufacturing work into clerical work. This created a substantial amount of horizontal segregation that persists to this day. To study the effects of occupational segregation on the gender gap, we introduce a decomposition technique that divides the gap into between-occupation and within-occupation components. Since the 1990s the component attributable to within-occupation wage differentials has become predominant