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1. Does the Canada Child Benefit Actually Reduce Child Poverty?

   This essay in the ongoing series on the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) focuses on empirically testing the federal government’s claim that the CCB has dramatically reduced child poverty. The principal analysis in this essay relies on Statistics Canada’s SPSD/M ...

2. The Distribution of the Canada Child Benefit by Family Type and Income Level

   This essay examines the distribution of the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) by family type and by income level. It also compares the value of the average benefit and total spending on child benefits between the previous system of child benefits—the ...

3. Is the Canada Child Benefit Targeted to those Most in Need?

   This essay assesses the federal government’s multiple claims that the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) is targeted to those who need it most. Any program providing benefits to 90 percent or so of families will struggle to be targeted to only those in need. Of ...

4. A Critical Assessment of Canada’s Official Poverty Line

   In November 2018 the Liberal government selected an existing low-income indicator as Canada’s first official measure of poverty. The government chose this indicator, the Market Basket Measure (MBM), to play a key role in the government’s new Poverty ...

5. The Causes of Poverty

   This paper is an inquiry into the causes of poverty. By poverty we mean a circumstance of serious deprivation where a person lacks one or more basic need—as opposed to a condition of inequality. The question we wish to try to answer is this: Why do some ...

6. Towards a Better Understanding of Income Inequality in Canada

   In recent years, income inequality has become one of the most animating—and unfortunately most misunderstood—economic and social issues of our time. Sparked by the 2008-09 recession, the well-deserved backlash against corporate bailouts, the Occupy Wall ...

7. Understanding Wealth Inequality in Canada

   This paper addresses two questions. First, is wealth inequality in Canada increasing? Second, what is driving the wealth inequality that we observe? The empirical evidence presented in this study strongly suggests that, at least in recent decades, wealth ...

8. Consumption Inequality in Canada: Is the Gap Growing?

   Increasing interest in economic inequality, especially in the media, has spawned an impressive number of academic studies, most focusing on income inequality. Inequality of consumption (people’s spending) has received much less attention. This study ...

9. Child Care in Canada: Examining the Status Quo in 2015

   Governments in Canada have decided that it is good public policy to help subsidize the cost of raising children, especially for children in low-income households. This paper presents the existing array of programs in Canada (as of the fall of 2015) and ...

10. Income Inequality Measurement Sensitivities

    This study measures both the current state of income inequality and its change over time (since 1982), paying particular attention to how different definitions of income and the choice of economic unit (individuals or families) influence the results. ...