1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« There are, however, few Canadian longitudinal studies of welfare and labor force participation among lone mothers due to paucity of data. The principal exceptions use non-random samples from provincial administrative welfare data. Most existing studies with a random sample of Canadian lone mothers use one or more cross-sectional surveys. Such analyses do provide valuable insights into the condition of love [sic] mothers, but are incapable of answering many of the most important questions facing policy makers. What are the observed changes in labour force and welfare participation as women enter lone motherhood? How do labour force and welfare participation change during a spell of lone motherhood? To what extent are changes in participation due to changes in sample composition (exits from lone motherhood) as opposed to changes in the behaviour of surviving lone mothers? How do the answers to any of the foregoing questions vary by such characteristics as the age and previous marital status of the lone mother, and the age and number of her children? What are the impacts of the unemployment rate and the available level of welfare benefits on these outcomes?
We provide answers to some of these and other questions in this paper using the Canadian Longitudinal Administrative Databank (LAD) which is a large sample of linked income tax records from 1982 through 1997 that has already successfully been used to study the economic consequences of marital dissolution, low-income dynamics, and other topics. » (p. 1)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
« We use the Longitudinal Administrative Databank (LAD) to provide the first longitudinal analysis of the earnings, and labour force and welfare participation of Canadian lone mothers. We analyze trends in these outcomes both within and between cohorts of lone mothers. We focus, in particular, on differences between lone mothers based on previous marital status. Our data cover the first five full years of lone motherhood as well as the last full year prior to the spell of single parenthood. We also employ several checks to test for the sensitivity of our findings to unobserved heterogeneity but find that these do not alter our conclusions. » (p. 41)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

« This paper uses data from a large sample of linked income tax files from 1982 through 1997 to analyse labour force and welfare participation of Canadian lone mothers. It compares trends in the likelihood of being in the labour force and on welfare both within cohorts (distinguished by previous marital status) and between cohorts of lone mothers. The study exploits the longitudinal aspect of the data by following women from the last full year prior to a spell of lone motherhood through the first five years in the spell. The most consistent finding is that of decreasing labour force participation and increasing welfare participation across cohorts of previously single lone mothers - both in absolute terms and relative to the trends for the previously married. The trends, furthermore, appear to reflect the pre-existing characteristics of these women rather than any changes in the effects of entering lone motherhood.»
(provenance du résumé : http://www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/sp-ps/arb-dgra/publications/research/2001docs/W-01-8/W-01-8_E_abs.shtml)