Commentary on The weak jobs recovery: whatever happened to "the great American jobs machine"?

Proceedings of a Conference Cosponsored by the Canadian Consulate General in New York, the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the New York Association for Business Economics.Labor market ; Business cycles ; Economic conditions

Economic Security in Nova Scotia

The report uses an aggregate index, based on security from the economic risks imposed by four key factors – unemployment, illness, old age, and single parenthood – to examine trends in economic security in Nova Scotia from 1981 to 2007. It concludes that economic security in Nova Scotia decreased during the 1981-2007 period.Economic security, Composite index, Economic well-being, Wellbeing, Indicators

New Estimates of the Index of Economic Well-being for Selected OECD Countries, 1981 - 2007

This report presents new estimates of the Index of Economic Well-being (IEWB) and its four domains (consumption flows, stocks of wealth, economic equality, and economic security) for 14 OECD countries for the 1980-2007 period. It finds that in 2007 Norway had the highest level of economic well-being and Spain the lowest. Canada ranked ninth among the fourteen countries. Over the 1980-2007 period Denmark enjoyed the most rapid increase in economic well-being, and the Netherlands the slowest. In all 14 countries rate of advance of the IEWB was less than that of GDP per capita. The IEWB addresses most of the recommendations of the recently released report from the Commission for the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (the Stiglitz report) on what aspects of economic reality an index of economic well-being should capture.Living standards, quality of life, income, housing affordability, wealth, inequality, poverty, productivity, employment quality, net worth, income, disposable income, low income, labour market, economic security, employment, unemployment, OECD

How Should We Measure Global Poverty in a Changing World?

development, poverty, measurement, China, rural, urban

Keeping in Touch – A Benefit of Public Holidays

This paper argues that public holidays facilitate the co-ordination of leisure time but do not constrain the annual amount of leisure. Public holidays therefore have benefits both in the utility of leisure on holidays and (by enabling people to maintain social contacts more easily) in increasing the utility of leisure on normal weekdays and weekends. The paper uses the variation (13 to 17) in public holidays across German Länder and the German Time Use Survey of 2001-02 to show that public holidays have beneficial impacts on social life on normal weekdays and weekends. Since these benefits are additional to the other benefits of holidays, it suggests that there is a case to be made for more public holidays.public holidays, social contacts, social leisure time, time allocation, time use diaries

Moving from a GDP-Based to a Well-Being Based Metric of Economic Performance and Social Progress: Results from the Index of Economic Well-Being for OECD Countries, 1980-2009

This report presents new estimates of the Index of Economic Well-being (IEWB) and its four domains (consumption flows, stocks of wealth, economic equality, and economic security) for 14 OECD countries for the 1980-2009 period. It finds that in 2009 Norway had the highest level of economic well-being and Spain the lowest. Canada ranked ninth among the fourteen countries. Over the 1980-2009 period Denmark enjoyed the most rapid increase in economic well-being, and the Netherlands the slowest. In all 14 countries rate of advance of the IEWB was less than that of GDP per capita. Economic well-being, therefore, has not advanced as rapidly as GDP per capita.well-being, economic measurement, IEWB, consumption, wealth, equality, economic security

New Estimates of the Index of Economic Well-being for Canada and the Provinces, 1981 - 2008

This report presents new estimates of the Index of Economic Well-being (IEWB) and its four domains (consumption flows, stocks of wealth, economic equality and economic security) for Canada and the provinces for the 1981-2008 period. It finds that the IEWB advanced at a 1.20 per cent average annual growth rate over the period, below the 1.58 per cent growth for GDP per capita. Both the consumption and wealth domains experienced solid advances over the period, but these developments were offset by declines in the equality and economic security domains. The IEWB addresses most of the recommendations of the recently released Commission for the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (the Stiglitz report) on what aspects of economic reality an index of economic well-being should capture.Living standards, quality of life, income, housing affordability, wealth, inequality, poverty, productivity, employment quality, net worth, income, disposable income, low income, labour market, economic security, employment, unemployment, Canada

Social Capital and Basic Goods: The Cautionary Tale of Drinking Water in India

India; water

Keeping in touch – A benefit of public holidays using time use diary data

This paper argues that public holidays facilitate the co-ordination of leisure time but do not constrain the annual amount of leisure. Public holidays therefore have benefits both in the utility of leisure on holidays and (by enabling people to maintain social contacts more easily) in increasing the utility of leisure on normal weekdays and weekends. The paper uses the variation in public holidays across German Länder based on more than 37.000 individual diary data of the actual German Time Use Survey of 2001-02 to illustrate the positive association between more public holidays and social life on normal weekdays and weekends. These benefits are additional to the other, direct benefits of public holidays.Public holidays, social contacts, social leisure time, time allocation, time use diaries, German Time Budget Survey 2001/02