Are Wealth Effects Important for Canada?

The authors examine the link between consumption and disaggregate wealth in Canada. They use a vector-error-correction model in which permanent and transitory shocks are identified using the restrictions implied by cointegration proposed by King, Plosser, Stock, and Watson (1991) and Gonzalo and Granger (1995). This procedure allows the authors to identify the reaction of consumption to both types of shocks and to calculate average marginal propensities to consume out of disposable income, human wealth, stock market wealth, and housing wealth. The authors find evidence of a significant housing wealth effect for Canada. Conversely, the evidence regarding the stock market wealth effect is weak. In terms of policy implications, other things being equal, the analysis of future inflationary pressures would require that more weight be put on fluctuations in housing prices than on fluctuations in stock prices.Domestic demand and components

Le Nord comme état de conscience

Dans ce texte, la première piste de réflexion de l’auteure concerne ce qu’elle appelle «le Nord comme état de conscience». Elle amorce ici une réflexion sur l’importance de la réalité nordique dans son travail d’écrivaine et dans toute son existence, en présentant un texte autobiographique de son expérience du Nord et de ses répercussions sur son imaginaire. Elle s’inspire principalement de ses deux romans La pêche blanche (1994) et L’hiver de pluie (1990), dont les deux titres font d’ailleurs référence à l’eau, au blanc et à l’hiver

A Methodological Approach to Selective Cutbacks

At times - when budget must be severely reduced on short notice and when sensible decisions must arise from complex situations - planners have to work out simple but reliable measures of resource allocation and reduction. This paper recognizes the need for applied research in this area and proposes a budget reduction formula that has the advantage of relating financial planning to program evaluation, faculty resources, and activity levels of departmental units. The tool developed is flexible, as it can be manipulated without endangering its basic assumptions to describe best each unit's intrinsic characteristics. Furthermore, its redistributive effects can be readily measured and made to respond to institutional priorities.Lorsque les budgets doivent être réduits rapidement de façon substantielle et que des décisions acceptables doivent être prises à partir de situations compliquées, les planificateurs et gestionnaires ont besoin de s'appuyer sur des approches simples et fiables d'allocation et de réduction de ressources. Cet article reconnaît la nécessité de la recherche appliquée dans ce domaine et propose une formule de réduction budgétaire qui a l'avantage d'établir la relation entre la planification financière et l'évaluation des programmes, les ressources professorales et les activités d'enseignement des unités académiques. La flexibilité de l'instrument permet de respecter les caractéristiques disciplinaires de chaque unité. De plus, \les résultats de l'application de la méthodologie donne la possibilité d'évaluer rapide-ment les effets redistributifs des réductions budgétaires et d'y porter un jugement à la lumière des priorités institutionnelles

La résolution de problèmes des parents d’enfants ayant une déficience intellectuelle

Les études concernant le stress et la santé psychologique des parents d’enfants ayant une déficience intellectuelle ont donné lieu à des résultats contradictoires quant aux différences intersexes. La présente recherche compare les mères et les pères d’enfants ayant une déficience intellectuelle à l’égard de leur stress parental, de leur détresse, de leur bien-être et de leur habileté à résoudre des problèmes. L’échantillon comprend 111 mères et 88 pères ayant complété un questionnaire auto-administré. Les résultats montrent que les différences entre les parents tendent à disparaître lorsque des facteurs contextuels sont considérés. Toutefois, l’orientation négative à l’égard des problèmes se révèle une dimension importante dans l’adaptation des parents face au stress, car elle est reliée à leur santé psychologique. Il pourrait donc s’agir d’une cible d’intervention à privilégier

Le concept d’autonomie . Indicateur synthétique et opérationnel du mode de vieillissement : une approche systémique

Dans le présent article, nous précisons d'abord le contexte et les objectifs de l'étude. Dans un deuxième temps, nous définissons le concept d'autonomie, indiquant comment celui-ci s'est traduit concrètement à l'étape de la cueillette d'informations (formulaire d'évaluation d'autonomie fonctionnelle). Dans un troisième temps, nous présentons la méthode de mesure ainsi que certains résultats obtenus avec un indice de comportements observables (activités de vie quotidienne, d'exploration extérieure et d'entretien ménager).The present study is a follow-up of a research project made in 1978 by the Equipe de Recherche Opérationnelle en Santé (EROS) of the Department of Health Administration at the Université de Montréal. The aims were a) firstly to construct a classification instrument by type for long-term care patients, enabling us, to identify these beneficiaries' needs, as well as to guide their placement in a health services' system. And b) to evaluate this instrument (realibility and validity), c) to initiate its implementation and d) to utilize it for evaluating the present placement system. This study constitutes the first stage in an approach aimed at producing, on the basis of a systematic scanning of data collected within the framework of the above-mentioned project; a comprehensive descriptive analysis of the social/health characteristics of an aged population (65 years and over) in one of Quebec's social/ health regions i.e. Montreal's South Shore. At first, the authors define the context and the objectives of the study undertaken; secondly, they define the concept of autonomy by showing how the latter is expressed concretely according to the observation instrument (evaluation form of the individual's functional autonomy). Thirdly, a presentation is made of the method of measurement, as well as certain results concerning an index of restricted autonomy directly released to situations of observable behaviour (e, g. daily-life activities, exploring the outside world, and housekeeping)

La prédiction des contacts avec le tribunal de la jeunesse : utilisation de l’évaluation du comportement par les pairs au début de l’école primaire

This study sets out to verify to what extent the evaluations of the behaviour of children by their peers in first year primary school make it possible to predict those who will eventually end up with an open record at the Juvenile Court. During their first year at school the children are classified according to the following categories : aggressive, socially withdrawn, aggressive-withdrawn, neither aggressive/nor withdrawn (contrast). A total of 992 subjects (493 girls and 499 boys) were evaluated at two different times during the study. The results indicate that the “aggressive-withdrawn” subjects, among the girls, are more likely to have an open record at the Court during the 7 or 8 years after having been evaluated in first year primary school. These findings may indicate that the girls whose behaviour is aberrant are more easily identified by their peers, given the fact that they generally have fewer problems of adaptation than the boys during their first year of school

Vieillissement, emploi, préretraite : les facteurs socio-économiques influant sur la gestion de la main-d'oeuvre vieillissante

Cet article présente les résultats d'une étude portant sur l'analyse des pratiques de gestion d'emploi des travailleuses et des travailleurs vieillissants en regard de la situation économique à laquelle sont confrontées les entreprises depuis quelques années. H traite des pratiques dominantes axées sur l'exclusion de la main-d'oeuvre vieillissante et met en lumière quatre facteurs permettant de mieux comprendre la stratégie d'éviction encore largement utilisée. Il présente en outre quelques pratiques novatrices mises de l'avant par les entreprises à l'égard de leur main-d'oeuvre vieillissante.Because of the aging of the Canadian population, the accelerated aging of the workforce is a reality in the Canadian labour market. In such a context, firms that try to keep their workforce young will have some difficulty in doing so, and some may not succeed. Studies show that Canadian firms presently tend to get rid of their aging workforce, and this is generally done through early retirement policies. Some studies have indicated that it may be time for socio-economic actors to modify their strategics in the context of an aging population and workforce.Our study seeks to identify innovative practices which firms have developed in the present economic context. As we found that few firms actually had developed innovative practices, and that very few try to retain their aging workers, we also explain what economic factors may have influenced firms to adopt the common early retirement strategy. The research is based on case studies carried out in six firms, firms that were considered to be performing well, and that have been solidly established for many years. Four of the firms are from the communications sector, one is a public health institution and the last is from the clothing industry. Five of the six are unionized and count more than 200 employees. Average age in these firms is older than the average age in the Canadian workforce, which indicates that these firms should be concerned with the aging of their workforces. Data were collected through two methods. General data on the workers, their careers, their employment situations, and their aspirations regarding retirement and the end of their working life were collected through individual questionnaires distributed to the workers in all of the firms. We also conducted interviews with human resources managers and union representatives in each of the firms, and studied firms' documentation on retirement policies, strategic planning, collective agreements, etc.This completed the information on the firms' strategics, the reasons for these, the perceptions of management as regards the expeetations of workers, and union strategics on these issues. As we wanted to identify the firms' practices concerning aging workers, we used a typology of practices including the following: career management (planning and development, labour mobility); adaptation of the working environment (working time arrangements, work adjustment or changes in tasks, wage adjustments and marginal benefits); exclusion of aging workers. As can be seen, the first two categories are strategics which aim at maintaining workers in the firm, while the last does the opposite. Our results indicate that there are few strategics adopted to maintain aging workers in employment. Measures aiming at early retirement are still more frequent even though the six firms have an aging workforce. Some managers and union representatives indicated that they were starting to consider the issue, but few innovative strategics were observed, and in most cases these were not used explicitly to manage aging, but rather to solve different problems such as labour shortages or high turnover. In any case, there were some firms which did some career planning and tried to introduce continuous training and multiskilling, elements which can permit aging workers' to stay longer in employment. Some firms did adopt some new working time arrangements, and these do correspond to workers' expeetations as was revealed by our survey. Arrangements to work part-time before retirement, and a leave without pay for educational purposes are amongst the examples observed. However, part-time or progressive retirement is offered in only one firm, the public health institution, and only on an ad hoc basis. How can we explain why Canadian firms still tend to exclude aging workers when the economic and demographic trends indicate that they should start considering strategics to keep these workers? Our research indicates four possible explanations. First, the macroeconomic situation and policies of recent years created financial pressures which led firms to adopt strategics of minimization of labour costs. This meant reductions in personnel, use of temporary workers and subcontracting, as well as early retirement options.The second factor influencing human resources management strategics concerning aging workers is the labour market situation. The chronic surplus of labour in the Canadian labour market may have led firms to use early retirement as a way to rejuvenate their workforce. This chronic surplus, composed largely of skilled youth and women, facilitates this rejuvenation process. Without such a chronic surplus, it can be hypothesized that firms would have to find ways to keep their aging workers, as is often the case in countries with close to full employment.The employment System and work organization are the third factor influencing firms' practices. New product and technological innovation strategics are often accompanied by organizational changes such as a reduction in management, multiskilling and similar new production concepts. In such a context, firms often view their aging workers as less adaptable. Given the elements present in the collective agreement concerning work rules and worker mobility, it may be easier for a firm to do away with older workers rather than try to integrate them in the new organization.As Canadian firms do not have a strong tradition of training and recycling human resources, the exclusion of older workers is often seen as an easier solution, all the more so since firms may worry about recuperating their investment in the training of older workers. Finally the workers' expectations constitute the last element favouring the exclusion of aging workers. Firms' practices have surely influenced workers' expectations and there is therefore some interaction between the two. Nevertheless, workers are inclined to view themselves as "old" or "aging" at an earlier age than was previously the case, as was indicated in our survey. Public and private policies regarding early retirement have brought many workers to see retirement as a positive situation, a period of rest which is due to them; of course this is the case only for those who have good pension plans, but early retirement policies over recent years have tended to make this situation financially advantageous for those who retired. This in turn created expectations in the minds of other aging workers. In our survey, some 55.8% of respondents indicated they would like to leave their job before the normal retirement age, with financial compensation.In conclusion, even if human resources management practices should obviously adapt to the demographic changes which are inevitable, a séries of factors, amongst which the macroeconomic situation and policies, the labour market situation, the changes in work organization, and workers' expectations, tend to favour the strategy of exclusion of aging workers