Measuring Socioeconomic Status in Historical Censuses of Canada

Shari Eli, University of Toronto
Nicholas Li, University of California, Berkeley
Janki Shah, Bank of Canada

We use the new complete count Canadian Census records spanning from 1871 to 1901 to explore measures of socioeconomic status including income, occupation, literacy, and prestige, which scholars commonly use to investigate economic mobility and inequality within society. We first explore the availability and comparability of measures across census years. Then, using individuals in the 1901 Census which contains wages, we document selection into the wage sample as well the characteristics of individuals found in different segments of the wage distribution. Lastly, we offer strategies to mitigate sample selection bias in future research.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 62. O CANADA! RESEARCH USING CANADIAN COMPLETE-COUNT CENSUS MICRODATA