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Have Middle-Class Earnings Risen in Canada? A Statistical Inference Approach

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  • Beach, Charles

Abstract

This paper extends the statistical inference approach developed in Beach (2016) to look at income changes over different regions of an income distribution. Specifically, it looks at relative-mean earnings (RME) ratios and mean earnings levels for lower earners, middle-class (MC) workers and higher earners in Canada since 1970. Formulas are developed for (asymptotic) standard errors of these distributional statistics. The most consistent pattern since 1980 has been the marked decline in RME for MC workers, which has been highly statistically significant. Since 2005, however, real earnings levels have increased significantly and have been broadly shared across these earnings groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Beach, Charles, 2017. "Have Middle-Class Earnings Risen in Canada? A Statistical Inference Approach," Queen's Economics Department Working Papers 274719, Queen's University - Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:quedwp:274719
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.274719
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    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/274719/files/qed_wp_1393.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. David A. Green & Benjamin M. Sand, 2015. "Has the Canadian labour market polarized?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 48(2), pages 612-646, May.
    2. Charles M. Beach, 2016. "Changing income inequality: A distributional paradigm for Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(4), pages 1229-1292, November.
    3. Charles M. Beach, 2016. "Changing income inequality: A distributional paradigm for Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1229-1292, November.
    4. Charles M. Beach & Russell Davidson, 1983. "Distribution-Free Statistical Inference with Lorenz Curves and Income Shares," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 50(4), pages 723-735.
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    Cited by:

    1. Beach, Charles M., 2018. "Distributional Gains of Near Higher Earners," Queen's Economics Department Working Papers 274724, Queen's University - Department of Economics.

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