This page has downloadable copies of all RDC Papers prepared by faculty and students at the British Columbia Interuniversity Research Data Centre (BCIRDC) and published by the Centre in collaboration with Statistics Canada. The RDC Paper Series publishes studies produced from each of the research projects conducted at the RDCs across Canada. The Statistics Canada RDC Program website will publish an abstract of each RDC Paper with links to the respective RDC website where the study is posted in whole.
In accordance with Statistics Canada's mandate, these research papers have no public policy commentary, and all interpretative statements are substantiated by the data. Each paper will be submitted to a peer and institutional review process that is described on the Publication Guide page of this website. The author could produce another paper based on the same statistical analysis to be published in any venue, and this other paper can include whatever interpretative/policy commentary the author wishes. However, the confidentiality requirements that applied to the RDC Paper remain in effect for all subsequent publications.
RDC Papers are added to this page after each project has been completed at the BCIRDC and the project's manuscript has successfully passed through Statistics Canada's institutional review process.
The following RDC Paper Series reports can be read with Adobe Acrobat Reader software.
Abstract: This paper examines the effects of parental labour supply and child-care use on pre-school children's PPVT scores using a sample of children aged three and a half to five from the 1994, 1996 and 1998 National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY). OLS estimates indicate that children of mothers with above (below) average parenting skills and education have slightly worse (better) PPVT scores when their mothers work full-time outside the home rather than stay at home, but that for the average child, maternal labour supply has little effect. OLS estimates also indicate that hours in substitute care have no overall effect on PPVT scores, but hours in care are associated with higher scores for children in higher income families than for those in lower income families. Fixed effect findings are generally weaker but consistent with OLS findings. Using the unemployment rate to construct an instrumental variable, the hypothesis of exogeneity of maternal labour supply cannot be rejected.