Using the Canadians Censuses of 2001, 2006, 2016, and the National Household Survey of 2011, this article compares intra-household specialization patterns of married and cohabiting couples by gender composition of households. Household specialization is operationalized in several ways. The first set of measures captures the earnings differentials between spouses, while the second set of measures relies on labour supply. In line with previous studies, we often find a lower level of intra-household specialization for both male-male and female-female couples, compared with their heterosexual counterparts. However, the difference with heterosexuals is much larger for female-female couples. When the most recent dataset is split by income level, it appears that the specialization gaps are largely driven by the more affluent households. We also find considerable heterogeneity in the patterns when the sample is split by generational status.

Renters move frequently despite their low income elasticity of rent and high transactions cost. In this paper we test the hypothesis that negative economic shocks and financial insecurity are at the root of the mobility of continuing renters. Studies of homeowners with negative equity and in financial trouble help to guide our analysis. We define a negative economic shock as a decline in income, and financial insecurity as low liquid assets relative to rent, and low income. We address landlord screening – its existence has been well documented in recent literature. This indicates that, contrary to the standard theory, the household and the landlord jointly make the move-in decision and either may instigate a move out. We test our hypotheses using the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) for the years 1994–2011, creating a data set of major income earners and their households in two adjacent years. We select only continuing renters who do not move for job reasons. Using a random effects logit model which passes a Hausman test, we find that a negative income shock and financial insecurity have significant effects on mobility in specifications controlling for transaction costs, demographic characteristics, and landlord screening.

For most of Canadian economic history, French-Canadians (who composed more than a quarter of the country's population) had living standards inferior to those of English-Canadians. This was true even within the province of Quebec, where the French-Canadians constituted a majority. Today, no significant gap remains in Quebec. Surprisingly however, the question of when the gap started to disappeared remains unanswered. Most of the attention has been dedicated to the long-available post-1970 census data, which show rapid convergence. However, it is unknown whether the convergence started before 1970. In this paper, we use more recently uncovered data from the censuses between 1901 and 1951 to provide such an answer. We find that there was convergence from 1901 to 1921, a reversal from 1921 to 1941 and a recovery between 1941 and 1951 that extended to 1971.

For most of Canadian economic history, French-Canadians (composing more than a quarter of the country's population) had living standards inferior to those of English-Canadians. This was true even in the province (Québec) where the French-Canadians constituted a majority. Today, no significant gap remains. However, the question of when the gap started to disappeared remains surprisingly unanswered. Most of the attention has been dedicated to the post-1970 data when census information is available and which shows rapid convergence. However, we do not know if the convergence started before 1970. In this paper, we use data from the 1901, 1911 and 1921 censuses to provide the first elements of an answer. We find that the gap started closing modestly at the beginning of the 20th century but that it stopped closing until 1970. This is an important finding as it suggests that while there was some pre-1970 convergence, the bulk of the convergence occurred after 1970.

The homeownership disparities associated with sexual orientation have rarely been investigated. Using the Canadian censuses of 2001, 2006, 2016, and the National Household Survey of 2011, this paper examines how sexual orientation associates with the patterns of homeownership. Given the 2005 legal recognition of same-sex marriage in Canada, the data allow for comparing sexual minorities with heterosexuals of the same marital status. The analysis shows that prior to the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, same-sex households' homeownership rates were between the rates for married and common-law heterosexuals. Post-legal recognition, rather similar homeownership rates are found for common-law same-sex and common-law different-sex couples. But, married same-sex households, regardless of sex composition, are found largely less likely to own their residence than married heterosexuals. Non-negligible differences are also found regarding home values and the presence of mortgage. Various explanations are explored.

A common finding throughout the Canadian immigration literature is that, despite having high levels of education, recent immigrants endure substantial earnings disadvantages upon arrival that persist throughout their working career. This paper investigates the role of “qualitative” education-job matches in explaining these poor labor market outcomes. Using a self-reported match measure, available in the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID), the incidence and wage penalties associated with being mismatched are found to be higher among immigrants relative to Canadian-born workers. As a consequence, mismatches on the part of immigrants are a mechanism behind the immigrant wage disadvantages reported throughout the literature. Successful matching is also found to significantly improve the return to pre-migration education and work experience.

Between 1901 and 1921, there was an unprecedented nine-fold increase in the Canadian Jewish population. This paper examines the labor market attainment of Canadian Jews, using digitized, 5% random samples of the 1901, 1911, and 1921 Canadian censuses. We compared the earnings and occupational structure of Jewish working-age men to the affiliates of main Protestant denominations and Roman Catholics. We found a Jewish advantage over workers who were affiliates of most Protestant denominations and Roman Catholics across the three censuses, though the magnitude of the advantage is considerably lower for 1911 and 1921. When a distinction is made among Jews by their ethnic origin, Western European Jews are found to have the most favorable outcomes. We also compared Eastern European Jews with non-Jewish immigrants from the same regions. We found the Jewish immigrants to have a very different occupational distribution and to earn substantially more than their non-Jewish counterparts. These intriguing patterns invite scholars to do further historical research on the economic attainment of the Canadian Jewish population.

Purpose– The relationship between religiosity and female labour market attainment has been widely investigated for the USA; however, no comparable study has been undertaken for the Canadian context. The purpose of this paper is to redress this critical oversight of the literature by examining the impact of religiosity on Canadian female labour supply, both at extensive and intensive margins.Design/methodology/approach– Using data from the Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey, the authors consider all the measurable dimensions of religiosity, for the pooled sample, as well as by religious group. A wide array of control variables is included in the regressions to insure the reliability of the estimates.Findings– The authors find that overall religiosity inversely relates to female labour supply in Canada. When the impact of religiosity is assessed on a by religion basis, it is revealed that Protestant females are penalized, by far the most.Practical implications– The result is comparable with the pattern uncovered in the USA for Conservative Protestant females. Unlike what can be expected, no statistically significant difference is detected between religious-nones and Catholics, suggesting a convergence of gender ideologies.Originality/value– The investigation reveals interesting patterns that not only contribute to the current state of literature, but also motivate future research. Fairlie and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition techniques are also used to further explore attainment gaps among the religious groups.

This article provides new evidence on the economic assimilation of immigrants from the British Isles in Canada during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Using data from the 1901 and 1911 censuses and a pseudo-cohort methodology, we estimate both entry and assimilation effects. We find a non-negligible decline in entry earnings among successive cohorts of British and Irish immigrants, previously overlooked in the literature. Our estimates also reveal that the economic performance for Irish and older British arrival cohorts was better than previously reported. Overall, slow economic assimilation and sparse occupational mobility of immigrants have been a long-standing issue in the Canadian labour market.

Patients suffering from schizophrenia tend to have high rates of medical comorbidities and mortality.This study evaluated the healthcare costs of patients with schizophrenia and specific comorbidities relative to patients without schizophrenia with the same comorbidities, using Medicaid insurance claims databases from five states (from 2001-2010). The most common comorbidities were hypertension (48.8%), substance abuse (39.1%) and diabetes (28.4%). Patients with schizophrenia incurred greater all-cause monthly healthcare costs (cost difference [95% CI]: US$978 [933; 1024]) and comorbidity-related costs (cost difference [95% CI]: US$288 [269; 307]). Schizophrenia was also associated with significantly higher comorbidity-related costs in each comorbidity subgroup (among the three most common comorbidities: 99% higher in hypertension, 293% in substance abuse, and 105% in diabetes). The results suggest that patients with schizophrenia and comorbidities common in patients with schizophrenia had higher all-cause and comorbidity-related healthcare costs compared with patients without schizophrenia with the same comorbidities.

Using the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) I examine how immigrants’ foreign human capital is rewarded in the labour market. I exploit the enhanced details on education attainment, provided in the SLID, to decompose human capital variables into foreign and Canadian measures that are more precise than those used in related Census-based studies. I find that measurement error associated with using imprecise measures exaggerate the portability of foreign schooling and the degree of immigrant wage assimilation. However, the virtually zero returns to foreign work experience, commonly found in the literature, cannot be attributed to measurement error and is mainly responsible for estimated wage gaps in the standard human-capital-adjusted earnings function.

Background: Omalizumab is a monoclonal antibody indicated for moderate to severe allergic asthma patients with inadequately controlled symptoms.Objective: To evaluate the impact of omalizumab on emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations, and corticosteroid use among patients with uncontrolled asthma using high-dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and long-acting beta2-agonists (LABA).Methods: Health insurance claims from the MarketScan database (2002Q1-2009Q1) were analyzed. Patients with 12 months or more of continuous insurance coverage before and after the first omalizumab dispensing, 8 or more weeks of high-dose ICS use, 8 or more weeks of LABA use, and uncontrolled asthma at baseline were included. A retrospective analysis was conducted to quantify the impact of omalizumab on resource use by comparing ED visits, hospitalizations, and corticosteroid use 1 year before and after omalizumab initiation. A 1-year period was chosen to cover any potential seasonality impacts.Results: In total, 644 patients (mean age, 49.9; female, 59.2%) formed the study population. Omalizumab was associated with a 48.6% reduction in the proportion of patients with 1 or more asthma-related ED visits (pre vs post-omalizumab period: 21.4% vs 11.0%; P < .001) and a 40.8% reduction in asthma-related hospitalizations (25.0% vs 14.8%, respectively, P < .001). Compared with the pre-omalizumab period, the use of ICS decreased significantly after omalizumab initiation (7.8 vs 6.5 dispensings, P < .001; 41.9% of patients had a reduction in ICS use). A similar reduction in oral corticosteroid use was observed (5.0 vs 3.6 dispensings, P < .001; 53.3% of patients had a reduction in oral corticosteroid use).Conclusion: The current analysis showed that omalizumab treatment initiation was associated with significant reductions in ED visits, hospitalizations, and corticosteroid use. (C) 2012 American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The author suggests that most urban design is based on the requirements of the 'young, fit male' and goes on to describe an alternative approach taking into consideration the needs of a broader client range. Three schemes implemented in Leicester are described which have considered the needs of mobility-impaired groups. The City Centre Action Programme is a 10-year programme involving the creation of a pedestrian preference zone in the central shopping area and the creation of a network of new footpaths. A 'woonerf' scheme in Worthington Street, a typical Victorian terraced street has redefined the vehicular area as a narrow snaking passage and provided environmental improvements. Draft design guidelines are being prepared which will take into account the safety of women in any planned schemes. For the covering abstract see IRRD 877084.