Technological Change and the Education Premium in Canada: Sectoral Evidence

It has been well documented that the education premium measured by the wage difference between university and high school graduates has remained constant over the past two decades in Canada. Despite this stable pattern at the aggregate level, skill-biased technology could have important implications for the inter-industry wage structure. In a multi-sector economy where technological innovations are skewed towards certain industries, imperfect labour mobility implies a positive relationship between the education premium and the technological change in industry. Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finance and the Labour Force Survey, the authors obtain empirical results that would appear to confirm this link: university graduates in research and development- intensive industries are better paid . Yet, this positive correlation is largely due to the fact that high-tech industries attract more professionals who are more educated than the average university graduate.Labour markets

The Effects of the Exchange Rate on Investment: Evidence from Canadian Manufacturing Industries

Using industry-level data for 22 Canadian manufacturing industries, the authors examine the relationship between exchange rates and investment during the period 1981-97. Their empirical results show that the overall effect of exchange rates on total investment is statistically insignificant. Further investigation reveals the non-uniform investment response to exchange rate movements in three channels. First, it is important to distinguish between environments that have low and high exchange rate volatilities. Through changes in output demands, depreciations would have a positive effect on total investment when the exchange rate volatility is low. Yet, this stimulative effect becomes considerably smaller as the volatility increases. Second, these results for total investment are mainly due to movements in other machinery and equipment, and not to investment in information technology and structures. Third, investment in industries with low markup ratios are more likely to be affected by exchange rate movements.Exchange rates; Domestic demand and components

Replication and Meta-analysis of the Association between BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism and Cognitive Impairment in Patients Receiving Chemotherapy.

Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) adversely affects cancer patients. We had previously demonstrated that the BDNF Val66Met genetic polymorphism is associated with lower odds of subjective CRCI in the multitasking and verbal ability domains among breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. To further assess our previous findings, we evaluated the association of BDNF Val66Met polymorphism with subjective and objective CRCI in a temporally separate cohort of patients and pooled findings from both the original (n = 145) and current (n = 193) cohorts in a meta-analysis. Subjective CRCI was assessed using FACT-Cog. Objective CRCI was evaluated using computerized neuropsychological tests. Genotyping was carried out using Sanger sequencing. The association of BDNF Val66Met genotypes and CRCI was examined with logistic regression. A fixed-effect meta-analysis was conducted using the inverse variance method. In the meta-analysis (n = 338), significantly lower odds of CRCI were associated with Met allele carriers based on the global FACT-Cog score (OR = 0.52, 95% CI 0.29-0.94). Furthermore, Met allele carriers were at lower odds of developing impairment in the domains of memory (OR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.17-0.70), multitasking (OR = 0.33, 95% CI: 0.18-0.59), and verbal ability (OR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.24-0.88). Consistent with the previous study, lower odds of subjective CRCI among patients with the BDNF Met allele was observed after adjusting for potential confounders in the multitasking (OR = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.14-0.67) domain. In conclusion, carriers of the BDNF Met allele were protected against global subjective CRCI, particularly in the domains of memory, multitasking, and verbal ability. Our findings further contribute to the understanding of CRCI pathophysiology

Immunoregulatory Protein Profiles of Necrotizing Enterocolitis versus Spontaneous Intestinal Perforation in Preterm Infants

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP) are the most common acute surgical emergencies associated with high morbidity and mortality in preterm infants. We aimed to compare the profiles of immunoregulatory proteins and identify novel mediators in plasma of NEC and SIP infants. We also investigated the expression of target genes in resected intestinal tissues and an enterocyte cell line. Using Cytokine Antibody Array assay, we reported the first comparative profiles of immunoregulatory proteins in plasma of NEC and SIP infants, and showed that dysregulated proteins belonged to functionally diversified categories, including pro- and anti-inflammation, angiogenesis, cell growth, wound healing, anti-apoptosis, cell adhesion and extracellular matrix reorganization. Validation by ELISA confirmed significantly higher concentrations of interleukin (IL)-6, angiopoietin (Ang)-2, soluble type II interleukin-1 receptor (sIL-1RII), and soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) in NEC infants compared with gestational age-matched control, and a lower level of an epidermal growth factor receptor, secreted form of receptor tyrosine-protein kinase ErbB3 (sErbB3), compared with SIP infants. mRNA expressions of IL1-RII and uPAR were up-regulated in resected bowel tissues from NEC infants, indicating that immunoregulation also occurred at the cellular level. In FHs-74 Int cells, Ang-2, IL1-RII and uPAR mRNA expressions were significantly induced by the combined treatment with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and platelet activating factor (PAF). Our study provided plasmatic signatures of immunoregulatory proteins in NEC and SIP infants, and demonstrated involvement of multiple functional pathways. The magnitude of changes in these proteins was significantly more extensive in NEC infants, reflecting the different nature of injury and/or severity of inflammation. We speculate that dysregulation of IL-6, Ang-2, IL-1RII and uPAR occurred at both systemic and cellular levels, and probably mediated via LPS and endogeneous PAF signals. Such exaggerated immunologic responses may account for the high morbidity and mortality in NEC compared with SIP patients

Regulation of peripheral blood flow in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: clinical implication for symptomatic relief and pain management

Background. During the chronic stage of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), impaired microcirculation is related to increased vasoconstriction, tissue hypoxia, and metabolic tissue acidosis in the affected limb. Several mechanisms may be responsible for the ischemia and pain in chronic cold CPRS. Discussion. The diminished blood flow may be caused by either sympathetic dysfunction, hypersensitivity to circulating catecholamines, or endothelial dysfunction. The pain may be of neuropathic, inflammatory, nociceptive, or functional nature, or of mixed origin. Summary. The origin of the pain should be the basis of the symptomatic therapy. Since the difference in temperature between both hands fluctuates over time in cold CRPS, when in doubt, the clinician should prioritize the patient's report of a persistent cold extremity over clinical tests that show no difference. Future research should focus on developing easily applied methods for clinical use to differentiate between central and peripheral blood flow regulation disorders in individual patients

The Effect of Minimum Wages on Youth Employment in Canada: A Panel Study

Previous U.S. panel estimates of minimum wage effects have been criticized on the grounds that their identification rests on comparisons of ‘‘low-wage’’ and ‘‘high-wage’’ workers. Using Canadian panel data for 1988–90, I compare estimates based on the traditional U.S. methodology with those based on samples of ‘‘low-wage’’ workers exclusively. The results would appear to vindicate the critics: The minimum wage effect from the latter approach is virtually zero. Yet, estimates from different subgroups of low-wage workers indicate that there is a significant disemployment effect for those with longer low-wage employment histories. This highlights the heterogeneity within low-wage workers and the importance of carefully defining the target group not solely based on workers’ wages.

Service parts inventory management in a reverse logistics environment

The objective of this thesis are to raise awareness of the importance of reverse logistics by describing the reverse logistics process; present some specific and general reverse logistics activities in the firm key components and identify key components of the process and their implications for manufacturers, retailers, and logistic services.Master of Science (Logistics

Employment and wage dynamics, estimating the impact of labour market institutions

grantor: University of TorontoThis dissertation is comprised of two separate empirical projects that focus on the effect of changes in the institutional environment--in China, the movement to a "market economy" and in Canada, changes in the minimum wage legislation--on employment and wage dynamics. 'Part I: Wage and employment determination in Chinese state-owned enterprises, 1980-1994'. Labour market reforms in transitional economies are especially important to the restructuring of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) because they not only affect production efficiency, but also have potentially adverse social impacts on urban unemployment and income inequality. Using an extensive establishment-level panel data, Chapters 1 to 3 present some of the first empirical evidence on how Chinese SOEs have changed their employment and wage setting behaviour in response to gradual decentralization. Despite the deep-rooted egalitarian culture, I show that the link between workers' pay and enterprise performance strengthened between 1980 and 1994. However, the effect of reform on employment decisions appears to have been much weaker. Employment adjustment to demand shocks did not increase over the slow rates of the early 1980s. More importantly, I find that the central planning model provides a more consistent interpretation of the observed employment patterns. These results suggest that the decentralization in Chinese labour market is heavily skewed towards wage determination. The government continues to play an important role in employment decisions at least until the mid-1990s. 'Part II: Minimum wage legislations in Canada, 1988-1990 '. Previous U.S. panel estimates of minimum wages effects on youth employment have been criticized on the grounds that their identification rests on comparisons of 'low wage' and 'high wage' workers, who may differ in ways besides their pay. The institutional structure of minimum wage laws in Canada, whereby minimum wages vary across provinces, permits an evaluation of this objection. Using individual-level panel data for 1988-90, empirical results in Chapter 4 appear to vindicate the critics: the estimates based on exclusive samples of "low wage" workers are small and statistically insignificant. Low wage workers, however, are in turn a heterogeneous group. For 'transitory' workers with less than 3 quarters of low wage employment in the sample period, the minimum wage effects are virtually zero. Yet, there is a significant disemployment effect for the complementary group.Ph.D