This article explores the measurement of labor force dynamics using longitudinal data, focusing in particular on the Canadian Labour Market Activity Survey (LMAS), which represents a potential advance in longitudinal data collection because it measures aspects of dynamics not available in existing panel data such as the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the National Longitudinal Survey. We examine the implications of the LMAS questionnaire structure-the LMAS filter-for the study of labor market dynamics and undertake simulations to provide a quantitative assessment of the importance of this filter for labor force spells and transitions between labor force states.

The income maintenance experiments have received renewed attention due to growing international interest in a basic income. Proponents of a negative income tax (NIT) viewed it as a replacement for traditional welfare with stronger work incentives. However, existing labor supply estimates for single mothers (those eligible for welfare) are uniformly negative. We reassess the experimental evidence and find randomization failure in two NITs (Gary and Seattle). In Denver and Manitoba, we find positive labor supply responses for those on welfare before random assignment. Our results provide strong evidence that an NIT can increase work activity among single mothers on welfare.

The Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP) was a well-known welfare-to-work experiment that provided a generous but time-limited financial incentive to leave welfare and enter the workforce. Experimental evidence showed large short-term impacts but no lasting effects. We argue that these conclusions need to be reassessed. Policy changes implemented during the SSP implied that the control group’s behavior did not provide an appropriate counterfactual. We estimate the impacts the financial incentive would have had in an unchanging policy environment. This reassessment leads to significant changes in the lessons previously reached. Our study demonstrates that experimental findings need to be interpreted with care.

We analyze changes in unemployment, marginal labor force attachment, and participation in Canada and the United States using consistent measurement concepts. We show the importance for the comparative evolution of aggregate unemployment of changes in the fraction of those “wanting work”—the unemployed and marginally attached. We also study changes in the fraction of the nonemployed who are unemployed. Using micro data on labor market transition behavior at these margins, we find remarkably consistent results in the two countries, with the marginally attached displaying behavior lying between unemployment and nonattachment. The three nonemployment states are distinct in both countries.

This article provides an overview of the Canadian Unemployment Insurance (UI) program, including its evolution, salient features, relative size, and knowledge about its labor market impacts. Understanding of these impacts is limited, and we conclude that an "event-study" approach is a promising way to further this knowledge. We examine the effects of the 1976 UI disentitlement of the elderly on their labor force behavior and find evidence of significant adverse selection effects. Interactions with the public pension system suggest that poverty among the elderly could be best addressed through changes in programs other than UI.