IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/sls/secfds/08.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Poverty Among Senior Citizens: A Canadian Success Story

In: The State of Economics in Canada: Festschrift in Honour of David Slater

Author

Listed:
  • Lars Osberg

Abstract

Lars Osberg makes the case in his paper that the major success story of Canadian social policy in the twentieth century has in fact been the reduction of poverty among senior citizens. According to Osberg, the poverty rate, defined with the poverty line measured as one-half median equivalent income after taxes and transfers, for households headed by a person 65 or over fell from 28.4 per cent in 1973 to 5.4 per cent in 1997, while the poverty gap or income shortfall below the poverty line fell from 26.2 per cent to 15.8 per cent over the same period. In contrast, the elderly poverty rate and gap before tax and transfer income are much higher and show no downward trend. Osberg attributes the difference between the before and after transfers and taxes poverty rate and gap to the introduction of the Old Age Security in 1952 and Guaranteed Income Supplement in 1968 and the reduction in poverty after 1973 to the maturing of the Canada/Quebec Pension Plan regimes established in 1966. Osberg notes that income trends capture only part of the improvement in well-being enjoyed by seniors over the past several decades. Many of the current elderly population received significant capital gains from a large run up in housing prices in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition, the elderly have not been hit by the labour market insecurity that has affected the non-elderly, particularly youth, in the 1980s and 1990s. They have also greatly benefited from the introduction of universal medicare. Osberg also finds that relative to the United States, Sweden and the United Kingdom, Canada has done the best job in boosting the income levels of seniors above the poverty line. In his view, Canada has done a remarkable job in ensuring that senior citizens receive an income sufficient to prevent poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Lars Osberg, 2001. "Poverty Among Senior Citizens: A Canadian Success Story," The State of Economics in Canada: Festschrift in Honour of David Slater, in: Patrick Grady & Andrew Sharpe (ed.),The State of Economics in Canada: Festschrift in Honour of David Slater, pages 151-181, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
  • Handle: RePEc:sls:secfds:08
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.csls.ca/events/slt01/osberg.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Baker & Gary Solon, 2003. "Earnings Dynamics and Inequality among Canadian Men, 1976-1992: Evidence from Longitudinal Income Tax Records," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 267-288, April.
    2. Frank Graves, 2001. "The Economy Through Public Lens: Shifting Canadian Views of the Economy," The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress, in: Andrew Sharpe, Executive Director & France St-Hilaire, Vice-President , Research & Keith Banting, Di (ed.), The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2001: The Longest Decade: Canada in the 1990s, volume 1, Centre for the Study of Living Standards;The Institutute for Research on Public Policy.
    3. Kuan Xu & Lars Osberg, 2002. "The social welfare implications, decomposability, and geometry of the Sen family of poverty indices," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 35(1), pages 138-152, February.
    4. Zheng, Buhong, 1997. "Aggregate Poverty Measures," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 123-162, June.
    5. Buhong Zheng, 1997. "Aggregate Poverty Measures," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 123-162, June.
    6. Lars Osberg & Kuan Xu, 2000. "International Comparisons of Poverty Intensity: Index Decomposition and Bootstrap Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(1), pages 51-81.
    7. Lars Osberg, 1998. "Economic Insecurity," Discussion Papers 0088, University of New South Wales, Social Policy Research Centre.
    8. Sen, Amartya K, 1976. "Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(2), pages 219-231, March.
    9. Lars Osberg & Sadettin Erksoy & Shelley Phipps, 1998. "HOW TO VALUE THE POORER PROSPECTS OF YOUTH IN THE EARLY 1990s?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 44(1), pages 43-62, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Michael R. Veall, 2007. "Which Canadian Seniors Are Below the Low-Income Measure?," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 186, McMaster University.
    2. Park, Gum-Ryeong & Grignon, Michel & Young, Marisa & Dunn, James R., 2022. "How do housing asset and income relate to mortality? A population-based cohort study of 881220 older adults in Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    3. Robson, William, 2006. "Accounting for and Thinking about Social Security Liabilities in Canada," Discussion Paper 285, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    4. Marchand, J. & Smeeding, T., 2016. "Poverty and Aging," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 905-950, Elsevier.
      • Marchand, Joseph & Smeeding, Timothy, 2016. "Poverty and Aging," Working Papers 2016-11, University of Alberta, Department of Economics, revised 20 Nov 2016.
    5. Bustillo, Inés & Velloso, Helvia & Vézina, François, 2006. "The Canadian retirement income system," Documentos de Proyectos 3682, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    6. William B. P. Robson, 2001. "Six Pillars of Social Policy: The State of Pensions and Health Care in Canada," The State of Economics in Canada: Festschrift in Honour of David Slater, in: Patrick Grady & Andrew Sharpe (ed.),The State of Economics in Canada: Festschrift in Honour of David Slater, pages 183-224, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    7. Georges A. Tanguay & Ugo Lachapelle, 2019. "Potential Impacts of Telecommuting on Transportation Behaviours, Health and Hours Worked in Québec," CIRANO Project Reports 2019rp-07, CIRANO.
    8. James Williamson & Timothy Smeeding, 2004. "Sliding into Poverty? Cross-National Patterns of Income Source Change and Income Decay in Old Age," LIS Working papers 388, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    9. Kevin Milligan, 2008. "The Evolution of Elderly Poverty in Canada," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 34(s1), pages 79-94, November.
    10. Ake Blomqvist & Colin Busby, 2014. "Paying for the Boomers: Long-Term Care and Intergenerational Equity," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 415, September.
    11. Smith-Carrier Tracy A & Green Steven, 2017. "Another Low Road to Basic Income? Mapping a Pragmatic Model for Adopting a Basic Income in Canada," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 12(2), pages 1-21, December.
    12. Michael R. Veall, 2008. "Canadian Seniors and the Low Income Measure," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 34(s1), pages 47-58, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jean–Yves Duclos & Phillipe Grégoire, 2002. "Absolute and Relative Deprivation and the Measurement of Poverty," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(4), pages 471-492, December.
    2. Zheng, Buhong, 2001. "Statistical inference for poverty measures with relative poverty lines," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 337-356, April.
    3. Stephen P. Jenkins & John Micklewright, 2007. "New Directions in the Analysis of Inequality and Poverty," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 700, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Luis Enrique, Gutierrez Casas, 2006. "Pobreza de ingreso en CHihuahua: un análisis territorial para el período 1990-2000 [Income poverty in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico: a territorial analysis for the period 1990-2000]," MPRA Paper 11005, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Bibi, Sami & Duclos, Jean-Yves, 2007. "Equity and policy effectiveness with imperfect targeting," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 109-140, May.
    6. Michal Brzezinski, 2011. "Accounting for recent trends in absolute poverty in Poland: a decomposition analysis," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 465-475, December.
    7. Bosmans, Kristof, 2014. "Distribution-sensitivity of rank-dependent poverty measures," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 69-76.
    8. Indranil Dutta & Craig Gundersen & Prasanta K. Pattanaik, 2006. "Measures of Food Insecurity at the Household Level," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-95, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Kuan Xu & Ian Irvine, 2002. "Crime, Punishment and the Measurement of Poverty in the United States, 1979-1997," LIS Working papers 333, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    10. Robert H. DeFina, 2007. "A comparison of poverty trends and policy impacts for working families using different poverty indexes," Working Papers 07-13, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    11. Belhadj, Besma & Limam, Mohamed, 2012. "Unidimensional and multidimensional fuzzy poverty measures: New approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 995-1002.
    12. Benoit Decerf, 2021. "Combining absolute and relative poverty: income poverty measurement with two poverty lines," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 56(2), pages 325-362, February.
    13. Sami Bibi & Jean‐Yves Duclos, 2010. "A Comparison Of The Poverty Impact Of Transfers, Taxes And Market Income Across Five Oecd Countries," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 387-406, October.
    14. Oihana Aristondo & Conchita D'Ambrosio & Casilda Lasso de la Vega, 2023. "Decomposing the changes in poverty: Poverty line and distributional effects," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(4), pages 1048-1063, October.
    15. Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 2002. "Do we need a separate poverty measurement?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 61-85, March.
    16. Decerf, Benoit, 2017. "Why not consider that being absolutely poor is worse than being only relatively poor?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 79-92.
    17. Suman Seth and Gaston Yalonetzky, 2018. "Assessing Deprivation with Ordinal Variables: Depth Sensitivity and Poverty Aversion," OPHI Working Papers ophiwp123.pdf, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    18. LABAR, Kelly & BRESSON, Florent, 2011. "A multidimensional analysis of poverty in China from 1991 to 2006," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 646-668.
    19. Itakura, Ken & van der Mensbrugghe, Dominique, 2011. "Calibrating the Modified An Implicitly Directly Additive Demand System (MAIDADS) for Applied Economic Modeling," Conference papers 332140, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    20. Valérie Bérenger & Florent Bresson, 2012. "On The “Pro-Poorness” Of Growth In A Multidimensional Context," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 58(3), pages 457-480, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Poverty; Elderly Poverty; Canada; Retirement; Income; Low Income; Low-income; Wealth; Capital Gains;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O51 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

    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:sls:secfds:08. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: CSLS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cslssca.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.