Martin D. Dooley

Earnings Inequality among Males in the United States: Trends and the Effect of Labor Force Growth

We analyze the variance of log earnings within labor force cohorts of U.S. males with particular attention to the influence of labor force growth rates. Estimates with data from the 1968-79 current population surveys reveal increases in earnings inequality within labor force cohorts even after we control for the level of education, experience, and unemployment. A model of human capital investment is used to analyze differences among cohorts in the life-cycle profile of the variance of log earnings. It is shown that a pattern of sharply increasing and then declining labor force growth rates will tend to raise the return on human capital investment and thereby increase the variance of postschooling investment and log earnings early in the life cycle. This positive effect on relative earnings inequality should decline with experience and possibly become negative. Because of the post-World War II baby boom and baby bust, recent labor force entrants have faced just such a pattern of actual and projected labor force growth rates during their work life. An extended model is tested and generally confirmed using estimates and forecasts of labor force growth rates for the period 1920-2000.

Child Well-Being in Single-Mother Families

OBJECTIVES Children from single-mother families are at increased risk of psychosocial morbidity. This article examines the strength of association between single-mother family status and child outcome, both alone and controlling for other sociodemographic and personal (maternal/family) variables. METHOD Data from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth Cycle 1 (1994-1995) were used. Children aged 6 to 11 years in single-mother and two-parent families were included (n = 9,398). Child functioning measures included social impairment, psychiatric problems, and math score. RESULTS Single-mother family status on its own is a significant predictor of all child difficulties, but the explained variance is limited and the effect size decreases when other variables known to influence child functioning are included. Household income, a sociodemographic variable, is inversely associated with social impairment and positively associated with math score. Hostile parenting and maternal depression are the personal variables most strongly associated with social impairment and psychiatric problems. Children in single-mother families where there is hostile parenting are at significantly increased risk of psychiatric problems. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that children from single-mother families develop difficulties for the same reasons as children from two-parent families. Specific interventions for single-mother families may be warranted in the areas of parenting and other areas of concentrated risk.

The Evolution of Welfare Participation Among Canadian Lone Mothers From 1973-1991

Canadian lone mothers under age thirty-five exhibited an increasing reliance on welfare income along with stagnant wages and declining levels of market work and earnings between 1973 and 1991. In contrast, lone mothers age thirty-five and over exhibited a decreasing reliance on welfare income along with rising levels of market work, wages, and earnings. A key factor accounting for rising welfare use among younger lone mothers was a decline in wages relative to welfare benefits accompanied by a mixed pattern of demographic change (falling family size offset by growing proportions of lone mothers who are never married.) Much of the declining welfare use among older lone mothers can be explained by decreasing family size and increasing education accompanied by market wages that grew at the same rate as welfare benefits

The Role of Child Health and Economic Status in Educational, Health and Labour Market Outcomes in Young Adulthood

The Ontario Child Health Study provides the first opportunity in Canada to assess directly the relationship between socio-economic and health status in childhood and levels of completed schooling, health status, and labour market success in young adulthood. We find that childhood health problems are negatively associated with educational attainment, especially the probability of a university degree, and the health status of young adults. Our results also imply that childhood health problems influence adult labour force outcomes, especially for males, mainly through adult levels of schooling and health.

The Demography of Child Poverty in Canada: 1973-1986

This paper examines trends in the incidence and severity of child poverty in Canada between 1973 and 1986. Particular attention is paid to the relation between child poverty and demographic variables such as number of children per family. Multivariate analysis is used to assess how much of the change in the incidence of child poverty can be accounted for statistically by demographic change. Various definitions of income are used to analyze the impact of government transfers taxes and the earnings of wives on child poverty. The prevalence of poverty among children of young married couples and single mothers is noted. (SUMMARY IN FRE) (EXCERPT)

The increasing proportion of men with low earnings in the United States.

Data from the 1967 through 1978 Current Population Surveys of the U.S. Bureau of the Census are used to analyze the proportion of men with annual and weekly earnings below a fixed low earnings threshold. Logit analysis is used to assess the impact of the level of education, experience, cyclical conditions, and cohort size on the proportion of low earners within education-experience categories. Particular interest is paid to the influence of the labor market entry of the baby boom. The evidence indicates that, after controlling for the independent variables, the proportion of adult males with low annual and weekly earnings has been growing substantially except among the most highly educated.

The Impact of Cost on the Choice of University: Evidence from Ontario

This paper provides the first Canadian study of the link between cost to the student and the choice of university. Over the past two decades, there has been a substantial increase in the differences among Ontario universities in “net cost” defined as tuition and fees minus the expected value to an academically strong student of a guaranteed merit scholarship. Our estimates generally indicate no relationship between net cost and the overall share of strong applicants that a university is able to attract. An increase in net cost is associated with an increase in the ratio of strong students from high income neighborhoods to strong students from middle income and low income neighborhoods in Arts and Science programs but not in Commerce and Engineering. Finally, more advantaged students are more likely to attend university, but merit aid is not of disproportionate benefit to those from more economically advantaged backgrounds given registration.

Persistence and Academic Success in University

Dans cet article, nous examinons, à l’aide d’un ensemble de données couplées, les déterminants de la persévérance et de la réussite scolaires à l’université. Parmi ces déterminants, les notes obtenues au secondaire jouent un rôle nettement plus importants que la nature du programme universitaire, le sexe, l’entourage et les caractéristiques de l’école secondaire fréquentée. Le revenu moyen dans l’entourage et le classement de l’école secondaire fréquentée à des tests standardisés ont ainsi peu de liens avec la réussite à l’université. Ces résultats soulèvent des questions intéressantes sur ce qui permettrait d’expliquer la variation des notes à l’école secondaire et sur la combinaison de facteurs – liés à l’individu, à la famille et à l’école secondaire fréquentée – qui influe sur les résultats à l’université.

ESL Policy Reform and Student Academic Achievement

En 1999, la Colombie-Britannique a limité la durée du financement supplémentaire alloué à l’enseignement de l’anglais langue seconde (ALS) à cinq années par élève, mais en a augmenté le montant. Dans cet article, nous évaluons l’impact de cette réforme en analysant les résultats de tests normalisés d’arithmétique et de lecture d’élèves de 7e année de la région métropolitaine de Vancouver. Notre recherche a été faite à partir de cohortes, pour que nous puissions bien distinguer l’effet de chacun des deux éléments de la réforme. Nos évaluations indiquent que, après une période initiale d’ajustement, il n’y a aucun changement dans les résultats des tests d’arithmétique et une légère amélioration des résultats des tests de lecture des élèves inscrits en ALS par rapport aux autres élèves. Nos évaluations montrent également que la réforme a entraîné une réduction des coûts globaux de l’enseignement de l’ALS.

The Impact of Physical and Sexual Abuse in Childhood on Adult Economic Outcomes: Evidence from the Ontario Child Health Study

In this paper we use data from the Ontario Child Health Study, a community panel study which collected socio-demographic and health information from individuals aged 4-16 in 1983 and which was conducted in three waves (1983, 1987, 2001). A rare property of this survey is that questions were included in 2001 to obtain retrospective reports of physical and sexual abuse in childhood on an ordinal scale. We use this information to examine the neglected topic of the adulthood economic consequences of physical and sexual abuse in childhood. We present descriptive analyses which examine simple and partial correlations between our measures of adult economic outcomes and ordinal measures of abuse. We then estimate single equation regression models for each of our economic outcome variables as a function of the abuse variables and other socioeconomic characteristics. In a third stage we include education variables to examine whether these variables mediate the effects of abuse in childhood to adulthood economic outcomes.