distributional shift for all workers (men and women together, first panel). But
this hides strong opposite shifts in fact going on within the overall distribu-tion
between men and women. The earnings distribution for men shifted down
strongly over the 1982-96 period as a whole (right-hand column), while the
distribution for women workers shifted even more strongly upward
Table 3: Cross-Sectional Upward/Downward Shift for Men
and Women, Selected Years, 1982-1996
(percentage point changes)
|
1982- 1983 |
1983- 1989 |
1989- 1992 |
1992- 1996 |
1982- 1996 | |
|
All Workers | |||||
|
- Change in Top Three |
-0.1 |
0.0 |
0.1 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
|
- Change in Top Two Men |
-0.5 |
0.6 |
-0.8 |
0.3 |
-0.4 |
|
- Change in Top Three |
-2.0 |
1.7 |
-6.5 |
-0.6 |
-7.4 |
|
- Change in Top Two Women |
-0.8 |
1.2 |
-4.6 |
0.1 |
-4.1 |
|
- Change in Top Three |
3.4 |
0.6 |
9.7 |
1.3 |
15.0 |
|
- Change in Top Two |
0.6 |
2.0 |
5.0 |
1.0 |
8.6 |
Notes: 1A(Pv∣∣+P∣∣+P∣∣∖∣) - À(Plm + Pl + Pvl)
2À(Pvh+Ph) - À(Pl + Pvl)
where Pi represents the percentage of workers in earnings interval i.
(see Figure 2). So the two earnings distributions have strongly converged over
the sample period. Also note that the period of most marked distribu-tional
shifts occurred over the 1989-92 period of major recession in Canada.
Indeed, more than half the shifting occurred over this brief interval —
between 58 and 65 per cent of the entire 1982-96 shift for women and 88-
112 per cent for men. By contrast, the recessionary period 1982-83
464
Charles M. Beach and Ross Finnie