Social Policy and Income Mobility: An Interprovincial Perspective

In this article, I analyse intragenerational income mobility and the long-term dynamics of poverty. The proposed analysis is based on the Longitudinal and International Study of Adults and covers the period from 1983 to 2011. This period encompasses major social reforms that were implemented in Quebec and Ontario in the 1990s. In Quebec, several innovative policies were implemented with the aim of promoting the integration of economically disadvantaged people into the labour market. In Ontario, the government instead relied on coercive policies to achieve the same ends. The analysis proposes to indirectly investigate the effects of these reforms on income mobility and poverty dynamics. To do this, I present a Quebec-Ontario comparative study using several distinct cohorts. Although many studies have found that income disparities and relative poverty are lower in Quebec, the data do not allow me to conclude that the policies that were implemented in Quebec have had a significant effect on social mobility or on the dynamics of poverty.