Joseph Marchand

The Retirement Consumption Conundrum: Evidence from a Consumption Survey

Recent studies have shown that food consumption declines at retirement. We use broader definitions of consumption from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and find that the so-called retirement consumption puzzle is solved by using comprehensive consumption data.

Identifying the Poorest Older Americans

OBJECTIVES Public policies target a subset of the population defined as poor or needy, but rarely are people poor or needy in the same way. This is particularly true among older adults. This study investigates poverty among older adults in order to identify who among them is financially worst off. METHODS We use 20 years of data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey to examine the income and consumption of older Americans. RESULTS The poverty rate is cut in fourth if both income and consumption are used to define poverty. Those most likely to be poor defined by only income but not poor defined by income and consumption together are married, White, and homeowners and have a high school diploma or higher. The income poor alone display sufficient assets to raise consumption above poverty thresholds, whereas the consumption poor are shown to have income just above the poverty threshold and few assets. DISCUSSION The poorest among the older population are those who are income and consumption poor. Understanding the nature of this double poverty population is important in measuring the success of future public policies to reduce poverty among this group.

LOCAL LABOR MARKETS AND NATURAL RESOURCES: A SYNTHESIS OF THE LITERATURE

A primary way that natural resources affect a locality is through the demand for labor, with greater extraction requiring more workers. Shifts in labor demand can be measured through changes in employment and earnings, the main labor market outcomes, or through changes in the population and income, more generally. These changes may spillover to the non-resource economy, and their effects may be felt unequally across the population, thereby altering the distribution of income and the poverty rate. Educational attainment might also be influenced, as people choose between additional schooling and work. We synthesize the literature on the local labor market effects of natural resources by organizing the existing studies according to their measurement of resources and the outcomes that they consider. This synthesis provides an accessible guide to a literature that has boomed in recent years. It also identifies promising avenues for future research and lays a foundation to further generalize these results through an eventual meta-analysis.

The Distributional Impacts of an Energy Boom in Western Canada

In the energy-rich region of Western Canada, inequality rose over the past two decades, while poverty declined, begging the question of whether the recent energy boom was a contributing factor. This study uses measures of inequality and poverty across local labor markets that vary in energy extraction intensity to identify these distributional impacts. The evidence shows that, overall, the boom increased inequality and decreased poverty. There are, however, a few notable cases where these relationships are reversed. The significance and relative magnitude of growth across and between distributional segments were consistent with these findings.

Does the retirement consumption puzzle differ across the distribution

Previous research has repeatedly found a puzzling one-time drop in the mean and median of consumption at retirement, contrary to the predictions of the life-cycle hypothesis. However, very little is known as to whether these effects vary across the consumption distribution. This study expands upon the previous work by examining changes in the consumption distribution between the non-retired and the retired using quantile regression techniques on pseudo-cohorts from the cross-sectional data of the 1990-2007 Consumer Expenditure Survey. The results indicate that there are insignificant changes between these groups at the lower end of the consumption distribution, while there are significant decreases at the higher end of this distribution. In addition, these changes in the distribution are gradually larger in magnitude when moving from the lower end to the higher end, which is found using several different measures of consumption. Work-related expenditures are instead shown to decrease uniformly across the consumption distribution. This evidence reveals that there is a progressive distributional component to the retirement consumption puzzle.

Thinking about Minimum Wage Increases in Alberta: Theoretically, Empirically, and Regionally

In 2015, Alberta became the first province in Canada to commit to a

The US gender gap through the Great Recession using an alternative approach to cyclicality

15.00 minimum wage, from an initial rate of

Local Labor Markets and Natural Resources: A Synthesis of the Literature

10.20 to

Local Labor Market Impacts of Energy Boom-Bust-Boom in Western Canada

15.00 by 2018, through four annual increases. This commentary offers ways to more broadly think about the effects of these minimum wage increases, with an emphasis on potential employment loss. Following a description of the policy parameters, theoretical framework, and previous empirical evidence, back-of-the envelope calculations are provided for Alberta, which result in a potential loss of roughly 25,000 jobs. Given the boom and bust nature of the regional economy, Alberta should have timed its minimum wage increases with upward movements in energy prices, and/or followed through with its initial job creation tax credit or some other economic flexibility. Instead, by ignoring economic conditions, the province wrongfully prioritized wages during a time when employment was a problem.

No Place Like Home: Older Adults and Their Housing

Annual changes in the US gender gap are analysed before, during and after the Great Recession using a quasi-experimental approach, with treatment and comparison groups based on the industry composition within states. During this recession, the hourly wage gap was differentially reduced by seven to ten percentage points in states with a higher concentration of employment in male-dominant and cyclical industries, whereas the employment gap was differentially reduced by five to seven percentage points. Neither outcome was significantly altered in the years immediately before or after the recession. The evidence supports the pro-cyclicality of the gender gap movements.