IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/wpaper/30016.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Labour market dynamics in Canada, 1891-1911: a first look from new census samples

Author

Listed:
  • Inwood, Kris
  • MacKinnon, Mary
  • Minns, Chris

Abstract

This paper uses newly available census evidence to portray changes in labour market outcomes in Canada between 1891 and 1911. Multiple census cross-sections allow for the documentation of how the location, occupation, and earnings of Canadian and foreign-born cohorts changed over time. The westward movement of young anglophones after 1901 contributed to the formation of a national labour market. Anglophone, francophone, and foreign-born cohorts all experienced significant occupational mobility between 1891 and 1911, but francophones and immigrants remained over-represented at the bottom of the occupational ladder. Greater occupational and geographical mobility supported higher rates of earnings growth among Anglophones.

Suggested Citation

  • Inwood, Kris & MacKinnon, Mary & Minns, Chris, 2010. "Labour market dynamics in Canada, 1891-1911: a first look from new census samples," Economic History Working Papers 30016, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:wpaper:30016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/30016/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. C. Herbert Emery & Clint Levitt, 2002. "Cost of living, real wages and real incomes in thirteen Canadian cities, 1900–1950," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(1), pages 115-137, February.
    2. Baker, Michael & Hamilton, Gillian, 2000. "Écarts salariaux entre francophones et anglophones à Montréal au 19e siècle," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 76(1), pages 75-111, mars.
    3. J. C. Herbert Emery & Kris Inwood & Henry Thille, 2007. "Hecksher‐Ohlin In Canada: New Estimates Of Regional Wages And Land Prices," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 47(1), pages 22-48, March.
    4. Mary MacKinnon, 1996. "New Evidence on Canadian Wage Rates, 1900-1930," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 29(1), pages 114-131, February.
    5. Chris Minns & Mary MacKinnon, 2007. "The costs of doing hard time: a penitentiary‐based regional price index for Canada, 1883–1923," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(2), pages 528-560, May.
    6. Hatton, Timothy J., 1997. "The Immigrant Assimilation Puzzle in Late Nineteenth-Centuty America," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(1), pages 34-62, March.
    7. Green, Alan & Mackinnon, Mary & Minns, Chris, 2005. "Conspicuous by their Absence: French Canadians and the Settlement of the Canadian West," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(3), pages 822-849, September.
    8. Minns, Chris, 2000. "Income, Cohort Effects, and Occupational Mobility: A New Look at Immigration to the United States at the Turn of the 20th Century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 326-350, October.
    9. Green, Alan & MacKinnon, Mary, 2001. "The Slow Assimilation of British Immigrants in Canada: Evidence from Montreal and Toronto, 1901," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 315-338, July.
    10. Goldin, Claudia & Katz, Lawrence F, 1996. "Technology, Skill, and the Wage Structure: Insights from the Past," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 252-257, May.
    11. Inwood, Kris & Stengos, Thanasis, 1991. "Discontinuities in Canadian economic growth, 1870-1985," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 274-286, July.
    12. M C. Urquhart, 1986. "New Estimates of Gross National Product, Canada, 1870-1926: Some Implications for Canadian Development," NBER Chapters, in: Long-Term Factors in American Economic Growth, pages 9-94, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Alan G. Green & Mary MacKinnon & Chris Minns, 2002. "Dominion or Republic? Migrants to North America from the United Kingdom, 1870–1910," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 55(4), pages 666-696, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jason Dean & Maryam Dilmaghani, 2016. "Economic Integration of Pre-WWI Immigrants from the British Isles in the Canadian Labour Market," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 55-76, February.
    2. Escamilla Guerrero, David & Lepistö, Miko & Minns, Chris, 2022. "Explaining gender differences in migrant sorting: evidence from Canada-US migration," Economic History Working Papers 117260, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    3. Kris Inwood & Chris Minns & Fraser Summerfield, 2016. "Reverse assimilation? Immigrants in the Canadian labour market during the Great Depression," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 20(3), pages 299-321.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Timothy J. Hatton, 2010. "The Cliometrics Of International Migration: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 941-969, December.
    2. Kris Inwood & Chris Minns & Fraser Summerfield, 2016. "Reverse assimilation? Immigrants in the Canadian labour market during the Great Depression," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 20(3), pages 299-321.
    3. Jason Dean & Maryam Dilmaghani, 2016. "Economic Integration of Pre-WWI Immigrants from the British Isles in the Canadian Labour Market," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 55-76, February.
    4. Ran Abramitzky & Leah Boustan, 2017. "Immigration in American Economic History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1311-1345, December.
    5. Timothy J. Hatton & Zachary Ward, 2024. "International Migration in the Atlantic Economy 1850–1940," Springer Books, in: Claude Diebolt & Michael Haupert (ed.), Handbook of Cliometrics, edition 3, pages 507-535, Springer.
    6. Escamilla Guerrero, David & Lepistö, Miko & Minns, Chris, 2022. "Explaining gender differences in migrant sorting: evidence from Canada-US migration," Economic History Working Papers 117260, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    7. Di Matteo, Livio, 2013. "Women, wealth and economic change: An assessment of the impact of women's property law in Wentworth County, Ontario, 1872–1927," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 285-307.
    8. Ferrie, Joseph & Hatton, Timothy J., 2013. "Two Centuries of International Migration," IZA Discussion Papers 7866, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Collins, William J. & Zimran, Ariell, 2019. "The economic assimilation of Irish Famine migrants to the United States," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    10. Christina Diaz & Jennifer Lee, 2023. "Segmented assimilation and mobility among men in the early 20th century," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 48(5), pages 107-152.
    11. Ross D. Hickey & David S. Jacks, 2011. "Nominal rigidities and retail price dispersion in Canada over the twentieth century," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(3), pages 749-780, August.
    12. Patrick J. Coe, 2018. "Downward nominal wage rigidity: Evidence from Canada 1901–1950," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(3), pages 946-967, August.
    13. Jeanet Sinding Bentzen & Nina Boberg-Fazlić & Paul Sharp & Christian Volmar Skovsgaard & Christian Vedel, 2024. "Assimilate for God: The Impact of Religious Divisions on Danish American Communities," Working Papers 0253, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    14. Leticia Arroyo Abad & Noel Maurer & Blanca Sánchez‐Alonso, 2021. "Paesani versus paisanos: the relative failure of Spanish immigrants in Buenos Aires during the age of mass migration," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(2), pages 546-567, May.
    15. Inwood, Kris & Minns, Chris & Summerfield, Fraser, 2019. "Occupational income scores and immigrant assimilation. Evidence from the Canadian census," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 114-122.
    16. Jason Dean & Vincent Geloso, 2022. "The linguistic wage gap in Quebec, 1901 to 1951," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 16(3), pages 615-637, September.
    17. Timothy J. Hatton & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2006. "International Migration in the Long Run: Positive Selection, Negative Selection, and Policy," Springer Books, in: Rolf J. Langhammer & Federico Foders (ed.), Labor Mobility and the World Economy, pages 1-31, Springer.
    18. Alexander, Rohan & Ward, Zachary, 2018. "Age at Arrival and Assimilation During the Age of Mass Migration," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(3), pages 904-937, September.
    19. Rosés, Joan R. & Minns, Chris, 2018. "Power to the Periphery? The failure of Regional Convergence in Canada, 1890-2006," CEPR Discussion Papers 12803, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Ran Abramitzky & Leah Platt Boustan & Elisa Jácome & Santiago Pérez, 2019. "Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants over Two Centuries," Working Papers 2019-6, Princeton University. Economics Department..

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O51 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada
    • N0 - Economic History - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:wpaper:30016. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager on behalf of EH Dept. (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/chlseuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.