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Journal ArticleDOI

Location, location, location: Examining the rural-urban skills gap in Canada

01 Dec 2019-Journal of Rural Studies (Pergamon)-Vol. 72, pp 252-263
TL;DR: This article explored contemporary rural-urban differences in human capital using refined measures of literacy and numeracy skills, finding that rural residents obtain lower levels of education than their urban counterparts and those that do obtain post-secondary training often migrate to urban regions offering abundant employment opportunities and higher wages.
About: This article is published in Journal of Rural Studies.The article was published on 2019-12-01. It has received 23 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Rural area & Population.
Citations
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TL;DR: This paper showed that a 1 point increase in a nation's average IQ is associated with a persistent 0.11% annual increase in GDP per capita, even when OECD countries are excluded from the sample.
Abstract: Human capital plays an important role in the theory of economic growth, but it has been difficult to measure this abstract concept. We survey the psychological literature on cross-cultural IQ tests, and conclude that modern intelligence tests are well-suited for measuring an important form of a nation’s human capital. Using a new database compiled by Lynn and Vanhanen (2002) along with a Bayesian methodology derived from Sala-i-Martin, Doppelhofer, and Miller (AER, 2004), we show that national average IQ has a robust positive relationship with economic growth. In growth regressions that include only robust control variables, IQ is statistically significant in 99.8% of these 1330 regressions, and the IQ coefficient is always positive. A strong relationship persists even when OECD countries are excluded from the sample. A 1 point increase in a nation’s average IQ is associated with a persistent 0.11% annual increase in GDP per capita.

112 citations

Posted Content
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: This paper explored the dynamics of social assistance usage in Canada over this period using data based on tax files for between 2 and 4 million individuals in each year from Canada's Longitudinal Administrative Data - the LAD.
Abstract: Canada witnessed a dramatic decline in welfare participation from 1993/94 to the end of the nineties - one almost on a par with the U.S., but without the sort of landmark legislation adopted there. We explore the dynamics of Social Assistance usage in Canada over this period using data based on tax files for between 2 and 4 million individuals in each year from Canada's Longitudinal Administrative Data - the LAD. The unique attributes of this base - size, longitudinal nature, and income information availability - allow us, for the first time, to calculate annual incidence, entry and exit rates both at the national and provincial levels, broken down by family type. We discuss the variety of experiences of these groups; we identify the policy context and discuss the implications of the findings.

21 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the economic performance of 98 Municipal Regional Counties (MRCs) in the province of Quebec (Canada) in an urban-rural perspective is examined, using a set of spatial and industrial variables, from which they obtain 15 rural/urban types of MRCs.

16 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Zhang et al. as discussed by the authors explored the unbalanced development characteristics of the regional urban spatial form using three indicators: urban spatial expansion size, development intensity, and distribution aggregation degree, and evaluated their driving mechanisms using spatial autocorrelation analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, linear regression, and geographically weighted regression.
Abstract: Unbalanced regional development is widespread, and the imbalance of regional development in developing countries with rapid urbanization is increasingly apparent. This threatens the sustainable development of the region. Promoting the coordinated development of the region has become a hot spot of scientific research and a major practical need. Taking 99 counties of Jiangsu Province China, a typical coastal plain region, as the basic research unit, this paper explores the unbalanced development characteristics of the regional urban spatial form using three indicators: urban spatial expansion size, development intensity, and distribution aggregation degree. Then, their driving mechanisms were evaluated using spatial autocorrelation analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, linear regression, and geographically weighted regression. Our results found that the areas with larger urban spatial expansion size and development intensity were mainly concentrated in southern Jiangsu, where there was a positive spatial correlation between them. We found no agglomeration phenomenon in urban spatial distribution aggregation degree. From the perspective of driving factors: economics was the main driving factor of urban spatial expansion size; urbanization level and urbanization quality were the main driving factors of urban spatial development intensity. Natural landform and urbanization level are the main driving factors of urban spatial distribution aggregation degree. Finally, we discussed the optimization strategy of regional coordinated development. The quality of urbanization development and regional integration should be promoted in Southern Jiangsu. The level of urbanization development should be improved relying on rapid transportation to develop along the axis in central Jiangsu. The economic size should be increased, focusing on the expansion of the urban agglomeration in northern Jiangsu. This study will enrich the perspective of research on the characteristics and mechanisms of regional urban spatial imbalance, and helps to optimize and regulate the imbalance of regional urban development from multiple perspectives.

13 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare the odds of reporting individual and environmental barriers to physical activity in rural and urban adults, and explore interactions between rural-urban location and sociodemographic factors to characterize patterns in barriers.
Abstract: Background Individual differences in physical activity behavior are associated with a collection of individual and environmental factors manifesting as barriers to participation. Understanding how barriers to physical activity differ based on sociodemographic characteristics can support identification and elimination of health inequities. Objectives To compare the odds of reporting individual and environmental barriers to physical activity in rural and urban adults, and explore interactions between rural-urban location and sociodemographic factors to characterize patterns in barriers to physical activity. Design Cross-sectional. Methods We analyzed the 2017 Canadian Community Health Survey Barriers to Physical Activity Rapid Response, with a final weighted sample of 24,499,462 (unweighted n=21,967). The likelihood of reporting each barrier domain based on rural-urban location was examined using binary logistic regression following a model-fitting approach with sociodemographic characteristics as covariates or interaction terms. Results Adjusting for sociodemographic factors, rural residents showed 85% higher odds of reporting at least one social or built environmental barrier (OR=1.85 [1.66, 2.07]). Compared to urban residents, rural residents showed significantly higher odds of reporting barriers to facility access (OR=4.15 [3.58, 4.83]) and a lack of social support to be active (OR=1.17 [1.04, 1.32]). Urban residents reported lower preference for physical activity, lower enjoyment of physical activity and lower confidence in their ability to regularly engage in physical activity. Interactions between socioeconomic status and location were identified related to enjoyment and confidence to be active. There was no effect of location on predicting the odds of reporting an individual resource-related variable (e.g., time, energy). Conclusions Despite being more likely than urban residents to prefer and enjoy physical activity, rural residents have fewer opportunities and receive less social support to be active. It is important to consider geographic location when characterizing barriers to physical activity and in the development of context-specific health promotion strategies.

9 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...
Abstract: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...

31,693 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the extent to which economic action is embedded in structures of social relations, in modern industrial society, is examined, and it is argued that reformist economists who attempt to bring social structure back in do so in the "oversocialized" way criticized by Dennis Wrong.
Abstract: How behavior and institutions are affected by social relations is one of the classic questions of social theory. This paper concerns the extent to which economic action is embedded in structures of social relations, in modern industrial society. Although the usual neoclasical accounts provide an "undersocialized" or atomized-actor explanation of such action, reformist economists who attempt to bring social structure back in do so in the "oversocialized" way criticized by Dennis Wrong. Under-and oversocialized accounts are paradoxically similar in their neglect of ongoing structures of social relations, and a sophisticated account of economic action must consider its embeddedness in such structures. The argument in illustrated by a critique of Oliver Williamson's "markets and hierarchies" research program.

25,601 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Theodore Schultz1

4,827 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented a data set that improves the measurement of educational attainment for a broad group of countries, and extended their previous estimates for the population over age 15 and over age 25 up to 1995 and provided projections for 2000.
Abstract: This paper presents a data set that improves the measurement of educational attainment for a broad group of countries. We extend our previous estimates of educational attainment for the population over age 15 and over age 25 up to 1995 and provide projections for 2000. We discuss the estimation method for the measures of educational attainment and relate our estimates to alternative international measures of human capital stocks.

3,763 citations