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<p>Economic inequality is increasing in Canada and throughout the world. In addition to the equity concerns of distributive justice, growing economic inequality negatively impacts poverty, social cohesion, and the stability of the economy. This master’s thesis undertakes a major literature review to explore the trends in economic inequality and the policies that influence it.</p> <p>The current increase in economic inequality has been dominated by an increase in the income and wealth of the 1% to which the Occupy movement has drawn significant attention. Policies to directly counter this rise in both before- and after-tax top incomes are critical to combatting economic inequality. In addition to highlighting policies that target the very rich, this thesis examines intersections between traditional social policy and broader public policy in the field of economic inequality. It also argues for increased consideration of economics in social work research and policy practice. Economic inequality should be a concern to social workers alongside poverty.</p> <p>Policies in four areas are considered: income taxes and transfers, public services, labour market institutions, and capital market interventions. Recommendations are made for the future. Addressing economic inequality through national policy is both possible and advantageous. A comprehensive policy package involving policies from the four areas explored has the potential to reduce economic inequality.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

A growing body of research has examined over-education as a mechanism of post-employment inequality between immigrants and natives in host-country labor markets. Despite the growing share of high-skilled female migrants globally and their persistent disadvantages in labor market outcomes, male immigrants have been the focus of this literature. Addressing this gap, this study utilizes longitudinal data from the UK survey “Understanding Society” to examine the impact of over-education on native-immigrant wage disparities in the UK, and its intersection with gender. Through descriptive analysis, the study reveals persistent inequalities in over- education experiences among immigrant men, and in particular Western immigrant women. Growth curve modelling is used to estimate initial and long-term wage-effects over-education among immigrant men and women, finding that over-educated immigrant women face substantial initial wage penalties, albeit not statistically significant, but demonstrate a wage- recovery over time. Conversely, over-educated immigrant men face smaller initial wage penalties, but display significantly lower wage growth than their correctly matched counterparts. In conclusion, these disparities underscore the gendered constraints and opportunities shaping immigrants’ assimilation paths; while the wages of correctly matched immigrant men gradually converge with those of natives over time, correctly matched immigrant women face persistent wage disadvantages and limited upward mobility.

The state of Virginia has been a leader in the design and implementation of welfare reform measures. State welfare reforms were enacted in 1996 and federal reforms followed shortly after in 1996. Initial decreases in program caseloads and the movement of former recipients from unemployment to employment have led initial reform measures to be widely heralded as successes. Significant concerns remain, however, about the ability of non-metropolitan labor markets to absorb female household heads currently on welfare. This thesis addresses potential differences in the impact of welfare reform measures in non-metropolitan and metropolitan labor markets by estimating wage and reservation wage equations for female household heads in Northern and Southwest Virginia. The results suggest young children and lack of access to automobiles create significantly greater barriers to employment in non-metropolitan than metropolitan labor markets. Estimated potential earnings in Southwest Virginia were lower than in Northern Virginia and suggest that female household heads will have trouble escaping poverty through employment. In fact, initial reported earnings for both areas have fallen below estimates of living wages needed to escape poverty. The results also suggest traditional labor market characteristics do not explain all of the differences in earnings, particularly the differences in the observed wages of persons exiting welfare as compared to the general population. If this is the case, policies that only address child care and transportation costs may have little impact as to the ability of welfare recipients to get and keep jobs that enable them to become economically self-sufficient. / Master of Science

This thesis examines the wartime wage stabilization program in detail, and how it may help with controlling inflation in general.