Mary MacKinnon

New Evidence on Canadian Wage Rates, 1900-1930

This paper shows there are serious errors in published Canadian nominal wage data and presents hourly wage series, developed from firm records, for machinists, helpers, and laborers employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway between 1900 and 1930. This new evidence suggests that real wage growth in Canada was faster than previously believed and that there were substantial changes in wage inequality.

Dominion or Republic? Migrants to North America from the United Kingdom, 1870-1910

Late nineteenth–century Canada attracted a large number of immigrants from the UK, despite far lower average income per head there than in the US. While urban labour markets in the northern US were much larger than those in Canada, differences in outcomes between UK immigrants in Canadian and in northern US cities were small. Average annual real earnings by occupation group were only 10 to 15 per cent lower in Canadian cities. Individual–level census data indicate that the occupational distribution of UK immigrants in Canada was quite similar to that of their peers in the US.

Long-term employment relationships in the early twentieth century: Evidence from personnel data

Abstract This paper utilizes a new panel data set of workers employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway between 1904 and 1929 to analyse the incidence of long-term employment and reasons for changes in job durations after World War I. The hazard function estimates indicate that individuals have only a small probability of staying for more than ten years at the firm, although at any point in time long-term workers constitute a sizable fraction of employees. Increasing post-war spell lengths reflect the changing composition of the workforce rather than differences in macro-economic conditions or changes in employment relationships. Specific human capital and job matching were also important: Long-term employees were shielded from both firm-specific and economy-wide downturns.

Unemployment and Relief in Canada

The structure of the Canadian economy in the interwar era made it particularly vulnerable to the shocks generated in the international economy during the Depression. As a result, the labour market experienced massive dislocation. This chapter examines the impact of the Depression on the labour force, and the nature of government responses to these conditions.

Did British Capitalism Breed Inequality

1. The issues PART I 2. Real wages and standard of living 3. Earnings inequality, skill scarcity and the structure of pay 4. Income inequality PART II 5. What drives inequality? 6. Disequilibrating factor demand: The industrialization bias 7. Equilibrating supply: men, machines and skills PART III 8. Modeling inequality in a resource-scarce open economy 9. Fact or fiction? 10. Accounting for the Kuznets Curve, 1821-1911 11. Why was British growth so slow before the 1820s? 12. Inequality, industrialization and the standard of living during wartime: conjectures 13. Data, theory and debate Appendices.