The Correlation Between Husband's and Wife's Education: Canada, 1971-1996

We present a measure of the correlation between the education levels of spouses based on a bivariate ordered probit model. The change in this correlation over time can be measured while controlling for the large changes in the educational attainment levels. The model is estimated with data from 20 Surveys of Consumer Finances in Canada over 1971-1996. Our main findings are a reduction in this correlation among younger couples beginning in the 1980s, and an inverted U- shaped effect of the spouses' age difference on the correlation, with the maximum correlation occurring approximately when the spouses' ages are equal.education; correlation; age

The Correlation Between Husband's and Wife's Education: Canada, 1971-1996

We present a measure of the correlation between the education levels of spouses based on a bivariate ordered probit model. The change in this correlation over time can be measured while controlling for the large changes in the educational attainment levels. The model is estimated with data from 20 Surveys of Consumer Finances in Canada over 1971-1996. Our main findings are a reduction in this correlation among younger couples beginning in the 1980s, and an inverted U- shaped effect of the spouses' age difference on the correlation, with the maximum correlation occurring approximately when the spouses' ages are equal.correlation; education level; bivariate ordered probit model; SCF

Financial services used by small businesses: evidence from the 1998 survey of small business finances

Using newly available data from the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances, this article offers preliminary findings regarding the characteristics of small businesses in the United States and their use of credit and other financial services. The main goals of the survey are to provide information on credit accessibility for small businesses, their use of financial services, and the sources of those services. The survey also provides a general-purpose database that can be used to study small business financing. Preliminary findings suggest that although the financial landscape has changed markedly since the previous survey in 1993, financing patterns and the use of particular suppliers have not.Small business ; Financial services industry

The Independence and Economic Security of Older Women Living Alone

We study women aged 51-75 who live alone and are not married over the period 1969-1993 using national samples from The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) and The Family Expenditure Survey (FAMEX). We examine Income and Expenditure Patterns over the period and find that: there have been substantial increases in real incomes of these women, particularly during the 1970's. The principal source of growth was government transfers and especially the growth in CPP incomes. Should governments withdraw this financial support, low incomes could quickly re-emerge. Incomes of those who were previously married and of the older group of these women (ages 60-75) grew more rapidly over the period. The growth in income has gone almost entirely into consumption. Some of these women are able to save, but like most sub-groups of the Canadian population there is tremendous variability in saving rates among older women.SCF; FAMEX; income; expenditure; older women

Cohort, Year and Age Effects in Canadian Wage Data

We use Canadian Surveys of Consumer Finances 1971-1993 to study the wages of full-time, full-year male and female workers. Median real wages of 24-year-old males without a university degree fell by 25% between 1978 and 1993. For 24-year-old females the decline was more modest and reversed in 1987, but real wages in 1993 were still significantly lower than they were in 1978. We investigate whether these changes are permanent "cohort" effects or more temporary "year" effects. Graphs of median wages against year and age indicate some periods where year effects are more prominent than cohort effects and other periods where the reverse is true. We then compare the results from two models, one assigning the trends to year effects, the other assigning them to cohort effects, and use these models to produce real wage projections.SCF; wages; cohort

Inferring Species Trees Directly from Biallelic Genetic Markers: Bypassing Gene Trees in a Full Coalescent Analysis

The multi-species coalescent provides an elegant theoretical framework for estimating species trees and species demographics from genetic markers. Practical applications of the multi-species coalescent model are, however, limited by the need to integrate or sample over all gene trees possible for each genetic marker. Here we describe a polynomial-time algorithm that computes the likelihood of a species tree directly from the markers under a finite-sites model of mutation, effectively integrating over all possible gene trees. The method applies to independent (unlinked) biallelic markers such as well-spaced single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and we have implemented it in SNAPP, a Markov chain Monte-Carlo sampler for inferring species trees, divergence dates, and population sizes. We report results from simulation experiments and from an analysis of 1997 amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) loci in 69 individuals sampled from six species of {\em Ourisia} (New Zealand native foxglove)

The Success of Gay–Straight Alliances in Waterloo Region, Ontario: A Confluence of Political and Social Factors

This article outlines how gay–straight alliances (GSAs) work to connect youth with community resources, and outlines the political and social context of GSAs in Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. Fifteen individuals (youth, teachers, and a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer [LGBTQ] youth service provider) participated in interviews about the role of GSAs in creating supportive school environments for LGBTQ youth and their allies. Analyses of the interview data found that, apart from providing direct support to LGBTQ students, GSAs in Waterloo Region decrease isolation by connecting youth with other LGBTQ community members, events, and resources. This article discusses how the confluence of government and school board policy and community agency support facilitates the implementation, maintenance, and success of GSAs

A phylogeny of birds based on over 1,500 loci collected by target enrichment and high-throughput sequencing

Evolutionary relationships among birds in Neoaves, the clade comprising the vast majority of avian diversity, have vexed systematists due to the ancient, rapid radiation of numerous lineages. We applied a new phylogenomic approach to resolve relationships in Neoaves using target enrichment (sequence capture) and high-throughput sequencing of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) in avian genomes. We collected sequence data from UCE loci for 32 members of Neoaves and one outgroup (chicken) and analyzed data sets that differed in their amount of missing data. An alignment of 1,541 loci that allowed missing data was 87% complete and resulted in a highly resolved phylogeny with broad agreement between the Bayesian and maximum-likelihood (ML) trees. Although results from the 100% complete matrix of 416 UCE loci were similar, the Bayesian and ML trees differed to a greater extent in this analysis, suggesting that increasing from 416 to 1,541 loci led to increased stability and resolution of the tree. Novel results of our study include surprisingly close relationships between phenotypically divergent bird families, such as tropicbirds (Phaethontidae) and the sunbittern (Eurypygidae) as well as between bustards (Otididae) and turacos (Musophagidae). This phylogeny bolsters support for monophyletic waterbird and landbird clades and also strongly supports controversial results from previous studies, including the sister relationship between passerines and parrots and the non-monophyly of raptorial birds in the hawk and falcon families. Although significant challenges remain to fully resolving some of the deep relationships in Neoaves, especially among lineages outside the waterbirds and landbirds, this study suggests that increased data will yield an increasingly resolved avian phylogeny.Comment: 30 pages, 1 table, 4 figures, 1 supplementary table, 3 supplementary figure