Category Family
Does (cohort) size matter?
In the US, the portion of young men between the ages of 18 to 34 who report having at least one partner has fallen substantially in recent years (sorry for the small image size): Charts similar to the one above have prompted talk of a sex recession. Yet worries that Millennials are killing sex (as […]
Some basic facts about the distribution of sex
The Canadian Community Health Survey is an annual voluntary survey, carried out by Statistics Canada, that collects information about a wide range of health outcomes and risk factors. As part of the 2013-14 survey, 47,764 Canadians between the ages of 15 and 49 were asked about their sexual activity – whether or not they have […]
Quebec is a distinct society, parental leave edition
My colleague Jennifer Robson has recently published a study on parental leave for the Institute for Research on Public Policy. It provides a detailed comparison of parental leave in Quebec and the rest of Canada (ROC), and provides a number of recommendations for changing the way that parental leaves are delivered through Canada' Employment Insurance system. As […]
Can sex triumph over patriarchy?
The way women and men spend their time has changed profoundly over the past century. Women in the developed and, to some extent, the developing world are spending much less time in unpaid household work, especially in tasks like cooking, cleaning, and laundry, and much more time in paid work. Men are doing a little bit less […]
Babies as Human Capital in an OLG model
I'm trolling Elizabeth Breunig. Because she said that "Human capital is one of the more odious terms in the capitalist lexicon". And I like the term "human capital", because I think it helps us think more clearly about investment in training and education. Are new-born babies "human capital"? My first thought was that they possess […]
The Fuss Over TFSAs
Well, there seems to be a fair amount of fuss over the proposed doubling of the contribution limit to Tax Free Savings Accounts(TFSAs). Kevin Milligan says the case for raising the annual TFSA limit is shaky as the benefit will be mostly to high wealth households rather than those at the middle or bottom of […]
Reverse Regression and the Great Gatsby Curve
[Update: I'm getting an awful feeling this post may be totally wrong. Does (1/b)/[1+Var(V(i))/Var(Y(i))] = b if the Lamarck model is true? If so, my proposal won't work. Wish I could do math.] [Update2. Nope, I think it will work. But Majromax in comments has come up with a simpler way to do the same […]
How to deliver tax relief for Canadian families
In the 1960s, my mother's monthly family allowance cheque paid for a week's groceries. In 2011, the median Canadian two-parent family had an income of just over $90,000. At that level of net income, a family with two children receives Canada Child Tax Benefit worth $87 per month. That doesn't come close to paying for […]
Who needs the responsibility?
Twenty years ago, men and women had similar attitudes towards children – young women, on average, wanted slightly more children than young men, but the differences were nothing to speak of. Now, on the other hand….
Within versus Between Sample Variation, or Why an Equal Marriage Means More Sex
It's clickbait, New York Times style: "Does a More Equal Marriage Mean Less Sex?" Spurred by findings of a paper by Sabrino Kornrich, Julie Brines and Katarina Leupp published in the American Sociological Review, the article argues that, "too much similarity in egalitarian marriages leads to boredom and decreased sexual frequency". In general, "the less gender differentiation, the […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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