Lars Osberg
Biographic Data
| ID | 293283 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lars Osberg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lars |
| FAMILY NAME | Osberg |
| SIGNATURE | OSBERG L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Dalhousie University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9643-9269 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 47 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 266 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 46 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
A few people make all the difference – an international comparison of “fair” pay differentials
Social inequality has long been an important topic of public debate in almost all societies in the world, but how much do people actually disagree and who is that does?This paper uses all five waves of International Social Survey Programme data (1987 to 2019) to compare attitudes toward "fair" pay ratios in Germany, Italy, Hungary, Norway, Great Britain, the USA, and Russia.Although respondents generally underestimate the actual size of current e…
Are Populists Insecure About Themselves or About Their Country? Political Attitudes and Economic Perceptions
Blown off-course? Weight gain among the economically insecure during the great recession
Can positive income anticipations reverse the mental health impacts of negative income anxieties
Economic Inequality and Poverty: International Perspectives: International Perspectives
Healing and/or breaking? The mental health implications of repeated economic insecurity
Economic Insecurity and the Weight Gain of Canadian Adults: A Natural Experiment Approach
Using four cycles of longitudinal National Population Health Survey (NPHS) data from 1994 to 2001, we examine whether increasing economic insecurity causes weight gain and obesity. In July 1996, Bill C-12 reduced Canadian unemployment insurance benefits considerably, arguably increasing the economic insecurity of Canadians exposed to unemployment risk. Using a difference-in-difference methodology, this paper compares the change in weight gain of …
The effect of economic insecurity on mental health: Recent evidence from Australian panel data
Economic Inequality in the United States
Originally published in 1984, this study explores multiple theoretical perspectives as well as critically analysing the most recent evidence at the time to try and find a full explanation for inequality in the United States. Arguments of neoclassical economists and Marxist and institutional structuralists are considered by Osberg as well as putting forward his own model. Osberg uses his findings to attempt a complete explanation of the issue and …
Inter-generational effects of disability benefits: Evidence from Canadian social assistance programs
Canadian Retirement Incomes: How Much Do Financial Market Returns Matter
How much might poor financial market returns affect the financial well-being of Canadian seniors? We compare three scenarios: if Canadian financial markets (a) never experienced the financial crisis of 2008 (i.e., continued on their pre-2008 path); (b) experienced the crisis and return to historical trends; or (c) enter a new low normal of depressed stock market returns and continued low interest rates. Using a population microsimulation model, w…
Gender Inequalities in Tasks and Instruction Opportunities within Indian Families
This contribution uses the Indian Time Use Survey (ITUS 1999) to document gender inequalities in tasks in India and their impact on an important aspect of inequality of opportunity – the resources invested in the education of children. It examines the school attendance of Indian children and the probability that they receive informal instruction or assistance with learning at home. The analysis documents clear gender inequalities in the allocatio…
Social Capital and Basic Goods: The Cautionary Tale of Drinking Water in India
This study uses micro-data from the 1998-99 Indian Time Use Survey (ITUS; covering 77,593 persons in 18,591 households in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Orissa, and Haryana) to argue that time use data provides a natural metric for measuring "social capital" building activities and for distinguishing between the relative importance of "bonding" into groups or "bridging" within communities. The study examines the correlation betwe…
Top Incomes Over the 20th Century: A Contrast Between Continental European and English‐Speaking Countries. By A. B. Atkinson and T. Piketty
"Fair" Inequality? Attitudes toward Pay Differentials: The United States in Comparative Perspective
Are American attitudes toward economic inequality different from those in other countries? One tradition in sociology suggests American "exceptionalism," while another argues for convergence across nations in social norms, such as attitudes toward inequality. This article uses International Social Survey Program (ISSP) microdata to compare attitudes in different countries toward what individuals in specific occupations "do earn" and what they "sh…
Work and Well-Being in an Aging Society
What policy, or set of policies, will most improve the economic well-being of Canadians? Because the aging of Canadian society will be a crucial part of the context of Canadian economic and social policy over the next few decades, this paper argues that the well-being of all Canadians is likely to be increased by policies that make it easier for individuals to smooth their labour supply more evenly over the life cycle. Greater smoothing of labour…
Measuring Obesity in Young Children
Child obesity is currently an important policy problem in Canada. Making the best evidence-based policy choices in response requires having the best possible evidence. Yet, we point out how easy it can be to make serious mistakes when measuring child obesity, particularly for young children. We demonstrate that parental reports of child height and weight very likely overestimate obesity prevalence for very young children. Given the importance of …
Globalization and Well-Being
GLOBALIZATION AND WELL-BEING John F. Helliwell Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002. 104pp, $40.00 cloth (ISBN 0-7748-0992-2), $19.95 paper (ISBN 0-7748-0993-0)One of Margaret Thatchers claims to fame was her relentless popularization of the TINA (there is no alternative) argument that the inevitable march of global market forces had made drastic changes to the fabric of the UK inescapable. In the Canadian context, her present day acolytes often claim that…
Inequality around the World
PART I: INTERNATIONAL PATTERNS AND ADVANCED COUNTRIES Wages Around the World: Pay Across Occupations and Countries R.B.Freeman & R.H.Oostendorp Australian Responses to Increases in Unemployment and Wage Inequality: Comparisons with the UK, NZ and USA R.G.Gregory Wage Indexation and the Evolution of Returns to Education in Italy. 1979-1992 M.Manacorda PART II: LESS ADVANCED COUNTRIES Markets, Human Capital, and Inequality: Evidence from Rural Chin…
The Economic Implications of Social Cohesion
Essays examine the impact of social networks and collective action on growth and other economic outcomes, contributing to understanding of the interaction between economic processes and their social framework
Understanding Growth and Inequality Trends: The Role of Labour Supply in the US and Germany
Essex for their hospitality. This paper represents a very substantial revision of previous versions, for comments on which I would like to thank Andrew Sharpe, Peter Burton, Mel Cross, Jeff Dayton-Johnson, Ashok Kotwal, Garnett Picot and the participants at the preliminary author’s workshop for their comments. However, all remaining errors are mine alone. 2Abstract Within the OECD, there are significant differences in the trend and level of avera…
International Comparisons of Trends in Economic Well-being
Time as a Source of Inequality Within Marriage: Are Husbands More Satisfied With Time for Themselves than Wives
Motivated by popular discussions of the “double work day” for women in dual-earner households, this paper examines gender differences among such couples in satisfaction with time for self, drawing on microdata from the 1990 Statistics Canada General Social Survey. While most earlier studies of the distribution of well-being within households focus on material goods, differences in access to free time are a potential source of inequity within the …
How Much of Canada's Unemployment Is Structural
Lars Osberg, Zhengxi Lin, How Much of Canada's Unemployment Is Structural?, Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques, Vol. 26, Supplement: Structural Aspects of Unemployment in Canada (Jul., 2000), pp. S141-S157
Poverty Intensity: How Well Do Canadian Provinces Compare
This paper uses estimates of the Sen-Shorrocks-Thon measure of poverty intensity in Canadian provinces, and the 95% confidence interval surrounding such estimates, for 1984, 1989 and 1991-1996 to compare Canadian provinces over time and internationally. Coinciding with more general social assistance support, poverty intensity in Ontario declined in the late 1980s to a level similar to Northern Europe, but since 1994 cuts to social assistance have…
"Fair" Inequality? Attitudes toward Pay Differentials: The United States in Comparative Perspective
Are American attitudes toward economic inequality different from those in other countries? One tradition in sociology suggests American "exceptionalism," while another argues for convergence across nations in social norms, such as attitudes toward inequality. This article uses International Social Survey Program (ISSP) microdata to compare attitudes in different countries toward what individuals in specific occupations "do earn" and what they "sh…
The effect of economic insecurity on mental health: Recent evidence from Australian panel data
Healing and/or breaking? The mental health implications of repeated economic insecurity
Are Populists Insecure About Themselves or About Their Country? Political Attitudes and Economic Perceptions
Time as a Source of Inequality Within Marriage: Are Husbands More Satisfied With Time for Themselves than Wives
Motivated by popular discussions of the “double work day” for women in dual-earner households, this paper examines gender differences among such couples in satisfaction with time for self, drawing on microdata from the 1990 Statistics Canada General Social Survey. While most earlier studies of the distribution of well-being within households focus on material goods, differences in access to free time are a potential source of inequity within the …
Globalization and Well-Being
GLOBALIZATION AND WELL-BEING John F. Helliwell Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002. 104pp, $40.00 cloth (ISBN 0-7748-0992-2), $19.95 paper (ISBN 0-7748-0993-0)One of Margaret Thatchers claims to fame was her relentless popularization of the TINA (there is no alternative) argument that the inevitable march of global market forces had made drastic changes to the fabric of the UK inescapable. In the Canadian context, her present day acolytes often claim that…
Poverty Intensity: How Well Do Canadian Provinces Compare
This paper uses estimates of the Sen-Shorrocks-Thon measure of poverty intensity in Canadian provinces, and the 95% confidence interval surrounding such estimates, for 1984, 1989 and 1991-1996 to compare Canadian provinces over time and internationally. Coinciding with more general social assistance support, poverty intensity in Ontario declined in the late 1980s to a level similar to Northern Europe, but since 1994 cuts to social assistance have…
The Origins and Development of Labor Economics
Since economics emerged as a distinct field of inquiry, no other single factor has occupied so central an analytical role as labor. A review in the library journal, Choice, noted that this book does for labor in the history of economic thought what Joseph A. Schumpeter's History of Economics Analysis did more generally for the whole of economics. Beginning with the origins of labor economics in medieval times, the book discusses the primacy of la…
Measuring Obesity in Young Children
Child obesity is currently an important policy problem in Canada. Making the best evidence-based policy choices in response requires having the best possible evidence. Yet, we point out how easy it can be to make serious mistakes when measuring child obesity, particularly for young children. We demonstrate that parental reports of child height and weight very likely overestimate obesity prevalence for very young children. Given the importance of …
International Comparisons of Trends in Economic Well-being
Gender Inequalities in Tasks and Instruction Opportunities within Indian Families
This contribution uses the Indian Time Use Survey (ITUS 1999) to document gender inequalities in tasks in India and their impact on an important aspect of inequality of opportunity – the resources invested in the education of children. It examines the school attendance of Indian children and the probability that they receive informal instruction or assistance with learning at home. The analysis documents clear gender inequalities in the allocatio…
Labour Market Regimes and Patterns of Flexibility: A Sweden-Canada Comparison
Economic Insecurity and the Weight Gain of Canadian Adults: A Natural Experiment Approach
Using four cycles of longitudinal National Population Health Survey (NPHS) data from 1994 to 2001, we examine whether increasing economic insecurity causes weight gain and obesity. In July 1996, Bill C-12 reduced Canadian unemployment insurance benefits considerably, arguably increasing the economic insecurity of Canadians exposed to unemployment risk. Using a difference-in-difference methodology, this paper compares the change in weight gain of …
Social Capital and Basic Goods: The Cautionary Tale of Drinking Water in India
This study uses micro-data from the 1998-99 Indian Time Use Survey (ITUS; covering 77,593 persons in 18,591 households in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Orissa, and Haryana) to argue that time use data provides a natural metric for measuring "social capital" building activities and for distinguishing between the relative importance of "bonding" into groups or "bridging" within communities. The study examines the correlation betwe…
Economic Segmentation and Politics
Recent research, most of it American, has demonstrated the importance of segmentation theory for explanations of a wide array of social and economic phenomena. This paper attempts to extend this theoretical perspective by examining some of its implications for political orientations and relationships. As many segmentations proponents are aware, conventional liberal and Marxist theories have systematically underestimated the persistence of heterog…
Segmentation and Labour Force Strategies
Economic Inequality in Canada
Birds of Passage, Migrant Labour and Industrial Societies
Socialist Development and Public Investment in Tanzania
A few people make all the difference – an international comparison of “fair” pay differentials
Social inequality has long been an important topic of public debate in almost all societies in the world, but how much do people actually disagree and who is that does?This paper uses all five waves of International Social Survey Programme data (1987 to 2019) to compare attitudes toward "fair" pay ratios in Germany, Italy, Hungary, Norway, Great Britain, the USA, and Russia.Although respondents generally underestimate the actual size of current e…
Blown off-course? Weight gain among the economically insecure during the great recession
Inter-generational effects of disability benefits: Evidence from Canadian social assistance programs
Work and Well-Being in an Aging Society
What policy, or set of policies, will most improve the economic well-being of Canadians? Because the aging of Canadian society will be a crucial part of the context of Canadian economic and social policy over the next few decades, this paper argues that the well-being of all Canadians is likely to be increased by policies that make it easier for individuals to smooth their labour supply more evenly over the life cycle. Greater smoothing of labour…
Vanishing Jobs: Canada's Changing Workplaces
The Information Economy: The Implications of Unbalanced Growth
A Note on the Wage Decisions of the Anti-Inflation Board
Auld, D.A.L. (1974) 'The Impact of Taxes on Wages and Prices,' National Tax Journal I47-150. Beigie, C. and J. Mendelsohn (1976) Tax Concessions to Boost Investment (Montreal: C.D. Howe Research Institute) Courchene, T.J. (1976) Monetarism and Controls: The Inflation Fighters (Montreal: C.D. Howe Research Institute) Economic Council of Canada (1976) People and Jobs: A Study of the Canadian Labour Market
Unemployment Insurance in Canada: A Review of the Recent Amendments
This paper summarizes available evidence on the impacts of the Canadian unemployment insurance program, discusses recent amendments to the program and proposes an alternative reform. It is argued that under 1978 conditions, the 'work disincentive' impact of UI Benefits on aggregate unemployment rates is quite small, hence cutting the benefit rate is unlikely to reduce appreciably measured unemployment (although it will increase the incidence of p…
Unemployment Insurance: [Insurance or Welfare?]: A Reply
Socialist Development and Public Investment in Tanzania
Distribution of Income and Wealth in Ontario: Theory and Evidence
Distribution analysis has advanced remarkably in recent years, and this is a valuable application of its principles to a Canadian context. The book provides an extensive survey of recent literature and a new source of income and wealth distribution data for Ontario, drawn from newly available microdata sets. It also presents an evaluation of the data as a basis for measuring inequality in the distribution of economic and well-being. The empirical…
Birds of Passage, Migrant Labour and Industrial Societies
The Origins and Development of Labor Economics
Since economics emerged as a distinct field of inquiry, no other single factor has occupied so central an analytical role as labor. A review in the library journal, Choice, noted that this book does for labor in the history of economic thought what Joseph A. Schumpeter's History of Economics Analysis did more generally for the whole of economics. Beginning with the origins of labor economics in medieval times, the book discusses the primacy of la…
Economic Inequality in Canada
Economic Inequality in Canada
The Redistribution of Income in Canada
Segmentation and wage determination
Dans leurs écrits récents sur la segmentation socio‐économique, les Américains ont utilise des données secondaires recueillies dans le secteur industriel, pour démontrer que les arguments qui veulent que les salaires soient fixés par la population active ou fonctionelle, étaient limités. A l'aide de données recueillies principalement dans des maisons de commerce canadiennes, cette étude explore les effets d'une notion alternative du fonctionnemen…
Segmentation and Labour Force Strategies
Economic Segmentation and Politics
Recent research, most of it American, has demonstrated the importance of segmentation theory for explanations of a wide array of social and economic phenomena. This paper attempts to extend this theoretical perspective by examining some of its implications for political orientations and relationships. As many segmentations proponents are aware, conventional liberal and Marxist theories have systematically underestimated the persistence of heterog…
A Fiscal History of Canada: The Post-War Years
The Information Economy: The Implications of Unbalanced Growth
The Market as Mechanism: Review of "Getting Ready for 1999: Ideas for Canada's Politics and Government" by Tom Kent
Lars Osberg, The Market as Mechanism: Review of "Getting Ready for 1999: Ideas for Canada's Politics and Government" by Tom Kent, Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Mar., 1990), pp. 86-90
Economic Inequality and Poverty: International Perspectives
The New Face of Poverty: Income Security Needs of Canadian Families
The Case for Change: Reinventing the Welfare State
Vanishing Jobs: Canada's Changing Workplaces
Unnecessary Debts
Poverty Intensity: How Well Do Canadian Provinces Compare
This paper uses estimates of the Sen-Shorrocks-Thon measure of poverty intensity in Canadian provinces, and the 95% confidence interval surrounding such estimates, for 1984, 1989 and 1991-1996 to compare Canadian provinces over time and internationally. Coinciding with more general social assistance support, poverty intensity in Ontario declined in the late 1980s to a level similar to Northern Europe, but since 1994 cuts to social assistance have…
Labour Market Regimes and Patterns of Flexibility: A Sweden-Canada Comparison
How Much of Canada's Unemployment Is Structural
Lars Osberg, Zhengxi Lin, How Much of Canada's Unemployment Is Structural?, Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques, Vol. 26, Supplement: Structural Aspects of Unemployment in Canada (Jul., 2000), pp. S141-S157
Time as a Source of Inequality Within Marriage: Are Husbands More Satisfied With Time for Themselves than Wives
Motivated by popular discussions of the “double work day” for women in dual-earner households, this paper examines gender differences among such couples in satisfaction with time for self, drawing on microdata from the 1990 Statistics Canada General Social Survey. While most earlier studies of the distribution of well-being within households focus on material goods, differences in access to free time are a potential source of inequity within the …
Economics (42 works) · Political science (21 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Demographic economics (16 works) · Inequality (15 works) · Economic growth (14 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (14 works) · Labour economics (13 works) · Business (10 works) · Mathematics (10 works)