Abstract
In retirement, the economic well-being of the retirees depends in good part on the financial provisions they made when they were in the labour force. It is therefore interesting to assess how solid the economic situation is of those who are just about to retire, especially when these are the baby-boom cohorts who, according to some interpretations, should have suffered economic difficulties throughout their lives because of their large numbers.
In this chapter, we analyse the case for the first boomers, born between 1946 and 1956, for two Canadian provinces, Quebec and Ontario. Using Canadian censuses from 1971 to 2006, we calculate measures of their income and wealth at various (active) ages and compare both indicators of affluence to those of their ‘parents’ (cohorts born 30 years before) at the same ages. In both provinces, the baby boomers are much richer than their parents: in historical perspective, their economic situation just before retirement is not a great concern, except for a few special cases, analysed separately in the chapter.
Translated from French to English by Rufteen Shumanty.
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Notes
- 1.
Families and households practically coincide in Canada. We will use the two terms (family and household) interchangeably in this chapter.
- 2.
The census questionnaire for 2006 (long form: the only one of interest for our study) can be found on the web page of Statistics Canada, currently at this address http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/ref/question-guide-eng.cfm. Note that income is recorded individually, but we decided to analyse it at the household level for reasons of opportunity (we feel that this reflects better one’s real economic situation). Home ownership, instead, is reported collectively (the census question is ‘Is this dwelling owned by you or a member of this household?’): working at the household level is, in this case, the only possible solution.
- 3.
And it is also slightly lower in Ontario than in Quebec.
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Légaré, J., Cossette, A. (2012). Comparing the Economic Well-Being of Baby Boomers and Their Parents in Quebec and Ontario. In: De Santis, G. (eds) The Family, the Market or the State?. International Studies in Population, vol 100. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4339-7_4
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