Welfare participation and labour market behaviour in Canada (original) (raw)

State dependence in Canadian welfare participation

2006

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The Dynamics of Welfare Participation in Quebec

1998

Few studies have examined the dynamics of participation in welfare in Québec and elsewhere in Canada. This paper sheds some light on that important topic, which is crucial for the understanding of the features and of the effects of welfare programmes, and for the analysis of possible reforms. For this, we use a large representative sample of welfare participants between 1979 and 1993. We find that the majority of new spells last for less than one year. Nevertheless, that a large proportion of ongoing spells are of long duration. We estimate for instance that the 50% shortest spells account for only 10% of total welfare spending. Overall, single men leave welfare more rapidly than single women, young people faster than their elders, and more educated individuals sooner than the less educated. The welfare reform of 1989 appears to have reduced significantly the rate of exit among participants under 30. Returns onto welfare generally occur shortly after exit, and at a rate which diminishes rapidly with time. Finally, we propose a measure of welfare dependence which comes up being almost twice as large for single-parent families as for all other categories.

Social Welfare in Canada: The Case for Selectivity

Universality and selectivity are amenable to a rather straightforward and non-value-laden definition. For our purposes, universality may be described as pertaining to aid programs where the benefits go to all persons, regardless of income. The amount of the benefits, moreover, is invariant with respect to income (or wealth). In contrast, selectivity may be defined as an aid program with a means test: whether a person is eligible or not and the amount of benefits to be received are determined by financial status.

Individual Labour Force Participation

2012

Despite the explosive growth in the number of people receiving disability benefits in South Africa, very little is known about the labour supply effects of the disability grant (DG). This study investigates the impact of disability grant receipt on labour force participation. Consideration is given to potential bias that may arise from unobserved confounding factors. The study utilises data drawn from the 2007 wave of the General Household Survey (GHS) and implements a three-step methodology in a comparative perspective. Firstly, a standard probit regression of labour force participation is applied, followed by an instrumental variable regression to correct for possible endogeneity of DG take up. Finally, the sensitivity and robustness of the results is checked by implementing a variety of propensity score matching techniques. The results overall suggest that the DG receipt has substantial work disincentive effects, but the magnitude of the effect differs between parametric and non-

The Social Multiplier and Labor Market Participation of Mothers

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2009

In France as in the US, the participation of a mother in the labour market is influenced by the sex of her oldest siblings. Same-sex mothers tend to have more children and to work significantly less than the other mothers. In contrast, the sex of the oldest siblings does not have any perceptible influence on neighbourhood choices. There is no correlation between the sex of the siblings of a mother and the sex of the siblings of the other mothers living in the same close neighbourhood. Given these facts, the distribution of the sex of the siblings of the other mothers provides us with a plausible instrumental variable to identify the influence of other mothers' participation on a mother's participation in the labour market. Reduced-form analysis reveals that a mother's participation in the labour market is significantly affected by the sex of the oldest siblings of the other mothers living in the same neighbourhood. IV estimates suggest a strong impact of close neighbours' participation in the labour market on individual participation. We compare this result to estimates produced using the distribution of children's quarters of birth to generate instruments. Mothers whose children were born at the end of the year cannot send their children to pre-elementary school as early as the other mothers and participate less in the labour market. Interestingly enough, estimates using the distribution of quarters of birth in the neighbourhood as instruments are as strong as estimates using the sex-mix instruments.