IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cje/issued/v30y1997i3p595-621.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Welfare Participation and Labour Market Behaviour in Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Louis N. Christofides
  • Thanasis Stengos
  • Robert Swidinsky

Abstract

In this paper, bivariate probit estimation procedures and nonindependent selectivity adjustments are employed to investigate the determinants of the joint welfare participation-labor supply decisions made by single males, single females, lone fathers, and lone mothers, using data from the 1988-89 Labour Market Activity Survey. The bivariate probit results indicate that the welfare and labor-force participation decisions are not independent. Welfare program parameters, however, such as the basic allowance and the program tax rate, generally do not appear to influence the welfare participation, labor force participation, or hours worked decisions. Rather, these decisions are more strongly associated with personal characteristics and labor market conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Louis N. Christofides & Thanasis Stengos & Robert Swidinsky, 1997. "Welfare Participation and Labour Market Behaviour in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 30(3), pages 595-621, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:cje:issued:v:30:y:1997:i:3:p:595-621
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0008-4085%28199708%2930%3A3%3C595%3AWPALMB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5
    Download Restriction: only available to JSTOR subscribers
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Berg, Nathan & Gabel, Todd, 2010. "New Reform Strategies and Welfare Participation in Canada," MPRA Paper 26591, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Martin D. Dooley, 1999. "The Evolution of Welfare Participation Among Canadian Lone Mothers From 1973-1991," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 32(3), pages 589-612, May.
    3. Ronald D. Kneebone & Katherine G. White, 2009. "Fiscal Retrenchment and Social Assistance in Canada," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 35(1), pages 21-40, March.
    4. Sandra Dandie & Joseph Mercante, 2007. "Australian labour supply elasticities: Comparison and critical review," Treasury Working Papers 2007-04, The Treasury, Australian Government, revised Oct 2007.
    5. Hou, Feng & Picot, Garnett & Myers, Karen & Myles, John, 2006. "Why Did Employment and Earnings Rise Among Lone Mothers During the 1980s and 1990s?," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2006282e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    6. Terracol, Antoine, 2009. "Guaranteed minimum income and unemployment duration in France," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 171-182, April.
    7. Stephen Whelan, 2010. "The Interaction between Income Support Programs," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(4), pages 407-440, December.
    8. Louis N. Christofides, 2000. "Social assistance and labour supply," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(3), pages 715-741, August.
    9. Jennifer Stewart & Martin D. Dooley, 1999. "The Duration of Spells on Welfare and Off Welfare Among Lone Mothers in Ontario," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 25(s1), pages 47-72, November.
    10. Nathan Berg & Todd Gabel, 2013. "Effects of New Welfare Reform Strategies on Welfare Participation: Microdata Estimates from Canada," Working Papers 1304, University of Otago, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2013.
    11. Christofides, Louis N. & Stengos, Thanasis & Swidinsky, Robert, 1997. "On the calculation of marginal effects in the bivariate probit model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 203-208, July.
    12. Ross Finnie & Ian Irvine, 2008. "The Welfare Enigma: Explaining the Dramatic Decline in Canadians' Use of Social Assistance, 1993-2005," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 267, June.
    13. Stephen Whelan, 2010. "The take-up of means-tested income support," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 847-875, December.
    14. Nathan Berg & Todd Gabel, 2015. "Did Canadian welfare reform work? The effects of new reform strategies on social assistance participation," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(2), pages 494-528, May.
    15. Irvine, Ian & Finnie, Ross & Sceviour, Roger, 2004. "La dynamique de l'aide sociale au Canada : le role des attributs individuels et des variables economiques et politiques," Direction des études analytiques : documents de recherche 2004231f, Statistics Canada, Direction des études analytiques.
    16. Irvine, Ian & Finnie, Ross & Sceviour, Roger, 2004. "Welfare Dynamics in Canada: The Role of Individual Attributes and Economic-policy Variables," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2004231e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    17. Chan, Winnie & Frenette, Marc & Irvine, Ian & Finnie, Ross & Sceviour, Roger, 2005. "Academic Outcomes of Public and Private High School Students: What Lies Behind the Differences? [Social Assistance Use in Canada: National and Provincial Trends in Incidence, Entry and Exit]," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2005245e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cje:issued:v:30:y:1997:i:3:p:595-621. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Prof. Werner Antweiler (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ceaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.