Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. We would like to thank Nancy Kong for all of her assistance during the initial stages of this project and Cameron Phipps-Burton for extremely helpful comments. This paper was presented as the 'Canadian Public Policy Lecture' at the 51st Annual Conference of the Canadian Economics Association, June 1 -4, 2017 in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The goal of this paper is to provide a descriptive comparison of economic outcomes for Canadian children, at the bottom, middle and top of the population income distribution. We use a very wide-angle camera, enabling us to provide a broad picture of differences/changes in families, policies and child outcomes. First, we describe some important changes over time in the families in which children live, nationally and by province. Second, we provide an overview of how Canadian policy in support of children has changed and how it differs across provinces. Of particular interest is the fact that the federal government has increased expenditures on child benefits considerably over the past 20 years, and expenditures are expected to grow further with the new Canada Child Benefit introduced in July of 2016 (Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, 2017). Third, we illustrate changes/differences in median incomes, in income distributions and in child poverty both before and after taxes and transfers at different points of time and in different provinces. Finally, we compare economic well-being of children in Canada in 2010 with that experienced by children in eight other similarly affluent countries with different policies to support children. 4 We are using this talk as an opportunity to indulge our own interests in how the economic well-being of Canadian children has changed over time; and how it compares to the economic well-being of children living in other affluent nations. We are also curious about provincial differences in the resources available for children since many relevant policies are set at the provincial level; and, we have a special interest in children from Atlantic Canada who have, perhaps, been less-studied than children from some other regions.
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