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The linguistic wage gap in Quebec, 1901 to 1951

Author

Listed:
  • Jason Dean

    (King’s University College)

  • Vincent Geloso

    (King’s University College)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Jason Dean & Vincent Geloso, 2022. "The linguistic wage gap in Quebec, 1901 to 1951," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 16(3), pages 615-637, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:cliomt:v:16:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11698-021-00236-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s11698-021-00236-3
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    1. Vincent Geloso & Chandler S. Reilly, 2022. "Did the ‘Quiet Revolution’ Really Change Anything?," CIRANO Working Papers 2022s-30, CIRANO.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Canadian economic history; Discrimination; Wage gap; Quebec economic history;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N11 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • J42 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Monopsony; Segmented Labor Markets
    • R52 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Land Use and Other Regulations

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