CCHE Seminar Series: Evaluating the Canadian Child Benefit and Universal Child Care Benefit

Mark Stabile

University of Toronto, INSEAD

Friday November 27, 2020, 10am-12pm, Zoom

Abstract: We evaluate the effect of both the Canadian Child Benefit (CCB) and the Universal Child Benefit (UCCB) on child poverty and maternal labour force participation of single mothers using a difference-in-differences research design. We focus on single mothers as they have historically had the highest poverty rates. Our analysis using the Longitudinal Administrative Database indicates that both reforms reduced child poverty, although the CCB had the greater effect. Results from the Canadian Income Survey suggest similar trends for single mothers but different trends for single women without children. Using the Labour Force Survey we find no evidence of a labour supply response to either of the program reforms on either the extensive or intensive margins.

Mark Stabile is the Stone Chaired Professor of Wealth Inequality and Professor of Economics at INSEAD and Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.  At INSEAD he directs the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre for the Study of Wealth Inequality at INSEAD and is the Deputy Academic Director of the Hoffmann Institute for Business and Society.

From 2007 to 2015 he was the founding Director of the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto and Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. From 2003-2005 he was the Senior Policy Advisor to the Ontario Minister of Finance, where he worked on tax, health, and education policy. He is the recipient of the Carolyn Tuohy award in Public Policy, the John Polanyi Prize in Economics, the Harry Johnson Prize from the Canadian Economics Association (twice) and Excellence in Teaching Awards from the Rotman School and INSEAD.  His recent work focuses on inequality, poverty, child health, health care financing, and tax policy. He has advised the Governments of the United States, Canada, and Ontario, among others, on health care reform and programs to reduce child poverty. He is associate editor of the Journal of Health Economics. Professor Stabile received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and his BA from the University of Toronto.