Paul S. Maxim

Drinking and Driving, Self-Control, and Gender: Testing a General Theory of Crime

Recently, Gottfredson and Hirschi proposed a general theory of crime. Central to the theory is the assumption that most criminal behavior is impulsive and reflects a lack of self-control. Thus criminals are seen as risk takers who are less restrained than noncriminals from illegal activities. In a secondary analysis of data from a roadside traffic survey, this study attempts to test Gottfredson and Hirschis theory by examining the relationship between self-control and driving under the influence of alcohol. Using several indicators of self-control, the results support the existence of a relationship for both men and women between low self-control and driving under the influence of alcohol.

Immigrants, visible minorities, and self-employment

Historically, self-employment was perceived as a mechanism whereby immigrants could circumvent discriminatory practices in wage labor. More recent research by Borjas in the United States, however, suggests that this view is incorrect. Immigrants, particularly members of visible minorities, are disadvantaged in both the wage labor and the self-employed markets. This pattern has not been replicated in Canada, however; after controlling for several socioeconomic attributes, it is found that foreign-born, self-employed visible minority-group members are not at a disadvantage in relation to the majority population. Foreign-born visible minority group members earn less, however, in the wage labor force. In contrast, it was found that there is no statistically significant difference between native-born visible minority group members and others in the wage labor force, and that native-born, self-employed minority-group members may earn more than others in that market segment.

Immigration policy and immigrant quality

This paper examines the earnings of foreign-born and native-born men in an attempt to evaluate whether the decline in the quality of Canadian immigrants is related to changes in the country-of-origin mix and the class (type) mix of immigrants. Based on a human capital interpretation, “higher quality” immigrants are defined as immigrants who have smaller on-entry earnings differentials and have earnings that grow at a faster rate (relative to native-born Canadians). The analysis consists of two parts. The first part is based on individual data on earnings and socio-economic characteristics collected in the 1971 and 1986 Canadian Censuses. Earnings equations are estimated for 16 country-of-origin immigrant groups. These regressions are then used to construct a cohort-specific measure of immigrant quality based on the earnings differential between foreign-born and native-born Canadians. In the second part of the analysis, additional regression equations are estimated, pertaining to the period 1968 to 1985, that relate these Census-based measures of immigrant quality to the country-of-origin and class mix of immigrants. In this analysis, unpublished data, supplied by theDepartment of Employment and Immigration, describing the distribution of immigrants across the three main immigrant classes is used. Overall, the analysis confirms that there has been a sharp secular decline in the quality of Canadian immigrants and suggests that it is related to changes in both the country-of-origin and class mix of immigrants.

Does Postsecondary Education Benefit Aboriginal Canadians? An Examination of Earnings and Employment Outcomes for Recent Aboriginal Graduates

The labour market outcomes of Aboriginal postsecondary graduates have received very little attention in the research literature. The purpose of this paper is to build on the existing research in the area by investigating the early earnings and employment outcomes of male and female Aboriginals with various postsecondary credentials (i.e., trades, college, and university), and compare their outcomes with those of visible minorities and the rest of the population. The results of this study show that visible-minority postsecondary graduates earn more than do Aboriginals and non-minorities. However, when controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and type of postsecondary attainment (i.e., level of schooling and field of study), Aboriginals earn more than both non-minorities and visible minorities. The extent of these earnings differences depends on both gender and level of schooling. Despite their relatively favourable earnings outcomes, Aboriginal postsecondary graduates generally experience poorer employment prospects. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Self-employment among immigrants: a test of the blocked mobility hypothesis.

This paper investigates the differential self-employment propensities between the native-born immigrants with Canadian education and immigrants with no Canadian education. The blocked mobility or relative disadvantage thesis argues that relative disadvantages experienced by immigrants in the labor market in the host society cause many to turn to self-employment as an alternative to wage labor. Many immigrants are unfamiliar with the social economic and legal structures of the host society and encounter problems with languages non-recognition of their credentials and discrimination. Immigrants may therefore find it difficult to land a job in the core sectors of the economy especially if they do not have additional education or training in the host country. They therefore consider self-employment. Previous research into this issue has failed to distinguish between self-employment in professional and non-professional occupations. This paper reports findings from a study using 1986 census data for 8719 self-employed small business owners in non-professional occupations 7588 self-employed professionals and 128375 wage-earners. The data support the thesis with regard to immigrants with high educational credentials obtained from home countries. Such individuals are more likely than those of similar educational level among either the native-born or immigrants with Canadian education to become self-employed in non-professional occupations. At lower levels of education immigrants overall also have higher self-employment propensities in non-professional occupations than native-born Canadians. The authors point out that immigrants may have informal resources such as cheap and loyal ethnic labor the ability to make transactions in the native languages of immigrants information on immigrant preferences and links with the origin countries of immigrants which help in the establishment and running of small businesses. These findings suggest that self-employment represents real economic opportunity for immigrants.

Social class versus cultural identity as factors in the residential segregation of ethnic groups in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver for 2001

This article examines the relevance of the spatial assimilation model in understanding residential segregation of ethnic groups in the three largest gateway cities of Canada. Using data from the census of 2001 it finds that while the model may have worked for the European groups they are less applicable to the visible minorities such as the Chinese, South Asians and Blacks. Residential segregation reduces with generation for the European groups but not for the visible minorities. Canadian patterns seem to be different from that seen in the United States. Many visible minority groups maintain their concentration levels even in the suburbs. The findings seem to indicate that cultural preferences may be just as important as social class in the residential choices of visible minority groups.

Modeling Educational Success of First Nations Students in Canada: Community Level Perspectives

Canadian assessments of First Nation and Aboriginal education lack any real modelling of reasons for the particular patterns of attainment — it is this void that we wish to fill. This paper examines educational attainment in First Nations communities using combined data from the 1996 Census and Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Education Survey for the school year 1995/1996, aggregated to the band level, for registered and non-registered Indian and Inuit students who live on reserve in Canada. Multiple sequential regression analysis is used to model the educational success of grade 12 and 13 students with community level characteristics, including an isolation variable, school type variable, demographic variables, economic variables, and human capital variables. We use three measures of educational success: the age appropriate rate, graduate rate, and withdrawal rate. It is shown that the community level variables are similar in their explanatory power of educational success; however, the effects of variables within blocks on measures of educational success differ. The demography and human capital blocks play a particularly important role for all three measures of educational success. Additional analysis includes an examination of standardized regression weights. The paper discusses research and policy implications and articulates future avenues for research.

Earnings Implications of Person Years Lost Life Expectancy Among Canada's Aboriginal Peoples

Overall, Canada has one of the world’s highest national life expectancies. This benefit is not shared by Canada’s aboriginal population, however, which has a life expectancy approximately seven years less than the general population. The Aboriginal population also differs in that it has a higher fertility rate and higher mortality rates among infants and young adults. One of the consequences of the mortality differential is that the number of person years of lost life (PYLL) expectancy is large for the Aboriginal community in comparison to the general population. While several studies have focused on the causes of differential mortality, this study examines some of the socio-economic consequences of differences in PYLL. Examining wage labor income, for example, we determine that the PYLL differential translates into an expected wage and salary loss of approximately

Cohort size and juvenile delinquency in England and Wales

1.56 billion.

Socioeconomic determinants of China's urban fertility

This study focused on the relationship between fluctuations in cohort size and rates of delinquency in England and Wales from 1957 to 1981. Both convictions and cautions were used as indicators of delinquency with the cohorts broken down by gender. Rates of convictions appeared to be related to cohort size for the first few cohorts, whereas caution rates appeared to covary with cohort size for the latter two-thirds of the cohorts studied. Although the relationship held for both sexes, the trend was much more pronounced for males than females.