Thursday, January 21, 2010

DLI FTP Site

To facilitate browsing, two changes have been made to the DLI home directory of the FTP site (/DissFTP/dli/).

1: You will notice that an English list of surveys and products (except geography, Census and trade) is now available in a directory called DLI collection ** except Census; Geography and Trade** . An equivalent French list is available in a directory called Collection de l'IDD **sauf le recensement; géographie et commerce international**.

The data files and documentation in these two directories are identical. The only difference between the two is the language used in the list of surveys and products. For example, if you access General Social Survey-GSS and Enquête sociale générale-ESG, the data and documentation directories within these two folders is identical.

The following directories under /DissFTP/dli/ have not been changed : (some of these were too large to be duplicated and included in separate access points)

Census of Agriculture - Recensement de l'agriculture
Census of Population - Recensement de la population
Geography - Géographie
Mirror-site-files-dliftp.library.ualberta.ca
Trade - Commerce international
Training-Repository - Dépôt des documents de formation
Readme-first-Lisez-moi.txt
Utility - Tools - Utilitaires - Outils

With this change, administrative directories and files that have always been under /DissFTP/dli/ on the FTP site may be more apparent (ex. z_dli_mirror, zmiralb, zz-other, zzlogs, .forward, .sh_history, .Xauthority, Dirlist.txt, exclude.txt, excludetar.txt, Readme-first.txt). These files are required to administer the FTP site.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Microdata on Bankrupcy

Question

A Graduate student in Business is looking for microdata on a snapshot of a person and his/her personal finances at time of bankruptcy. Specifically, data such as the person's credit card debt, outstanding mortgage loan, outstanding car loan, age, race, sex, income, etc.

He’s found US data (PACER http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/) and hopes there's something similar in Canada.

We’ve found the SLID and SCF variables that ask if respondents have ever declared bankruptcy, but these don’t get at the state of being IN bankruptcy.

Thanks!


Answer

The General Social Survey (GSS) cycle 21 Social Support and Retirement (2007) and the Survey of the Self-Employed (2000) PUMFs also have variables that ask respondents if they have ever declared bankruptcy. In GSS 21, they also ask at what age the respondent experienced bankruptcy and how many times.

The Office of Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada (http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/bsf-osb.nsf/eng/h_br01991.html) provides demographic and economic profiles of insolvent consumers in the Statistics section of its website. ex. Overview of Canadian Insolvency Statistics up to 2006 (http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/bsf-osb.nsf/eng/br01770.html#graph5). This website also includes a Bankruptcy and Insolvency Records Database that may be of interest to the student as well.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Missing Persons

Question

I have a researcher who is looking into the number of persons that go missing in Canada by year. I have been looking in the usual justice data locations but as this is neither a crime nor an offence I have not had much luck . Has anyone an idea where this data may be found?

Answer

I consulted our contacts in the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics and they provided the following information:

"Your contact is correct, being 'missing' is not a criminal offence - lots of people drop out of sight for a variety of reasons; we would only have data if a crime had been committed (ie kidnapping).

However, the RCMP owns the missing persons database ... they record all instances whereby someone declares someone as 'missing'. "

Homicides With Illegal Versus Legal Guns

Question

I have a student looking for ‘the number of homicides caused by illegal vs. legal guns in Canada up to 2005.’  I don’t see a product that includes this for registered or unregistered guns. Am I missing anything?

Answer

Our contacts in the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics have sent me two spreadsheets with data from the Homicide Survey that should be of interest to your student (Classification of weapon where primary cause of death was shooting; Homicides committed with firearms, Canada, Provinces/Territories).

Montreal Employment Data

Question

“I was recommended to speak to you regarding data on Montreal's cultural employment. I was hoping to find a precise breakdown of arts workers, such as dancers, film makers, etc. rather than the broad category of "arts, culture, and recreation". I have been looking at some American sources for inspiration, and they seem to have a very detailed breakdown of workers by city, does such thing exist in Canada? I was hoping to make some tables of "locational quotients" of arts jobs in Montreal, and whether or not they were concentrated in the city. Do you think chass would be helpful? Or perhaps some microdata may have this information? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.”

In response to the message above, I found for Census 2001, the SIT #97f0012xcb01053 which uses the 2001 National Occupational Classification for Statistics and provides fairly detailed counts for the occupational categories of interest in Category F03 Creative and Performing Arts.  It gives separate figures for dancers, musicians, visual artists, etc.

In the Special Interest Tables for 2006, the closest table seems to be #97-564-xcb2006006.   But in this table, the NAICS is used and the categories are much more lumped, as the table is cross-categorized with much more detailed demographic information.

Would there be an existing table using the 2006 Census data with the 2001 National Occupational Classification for Statistics?  Or some other source for obtaining that level of detailed employment data for the cultural sector?

Answer

The following topic-based tabulations include data for Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations and include a detailed breakdown by NOCS:

  • Occupation - National Occupational Classification for Statistics 2006 (720), Class of Worker (6) and Sex (3) for the Labour Force 15 Years and Over of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census - 20% Sample Data 97-559-X2006011

  • Employment Income Statistics (4) in Constant (2005) Dollars, Work Activity in the Reference Year (3), Occupation - National Occupational Classification for Statistics 2006 (720A) and Sex (3) for the Population 15 Years and Over With Employment Income of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2000 and 2005 - 20% Sample Data 97-563-X2006063

  • Occupation - National Occupational Classification for Statistics 2006 (720C), Sex (3) and Selected Demographic, Cultural, Labour Force, Educational and Income Characteristics (273) for the Population 15 Years and Over of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census - 20% Sample Data 97-564-X2006005


The following table may also be of interest to your client:

  • Occupation - Standard Occupational Classification 1991 (Historical) (707), Age Groups (12A) and Sex (3) for the Labour Force 15 Years and Over of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 1996 to 2006 Censuses - 20% Sample Data  97-559-X2006012


You can access these tables through the 2006 census module at  http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/english/census06/data/topics/ListProducts.cfm?Temporal=2006&APATH=3&THEME=74&FREE=0&SUB=743&GRP=1

Equities Held by Institutional Investors

Question

A student here is interested in determining the percentage or value of Canadian equities held by institutional investors (such as pension funds) as opposed to private investors. He would like these data over time, preferably since 1980, and preferably on a monthly basis (although quarterly or annual would suffice). Any ideas?

Answer

Please refer the client to CANSIM Table 378-0007 (National balance sheet accounts, book value, by sectors, at quarter end, quarterly) and CANSIM Table 378-0009 (National balance sheet accounts, market value, by sectors, at quarter end, quarterly). These tables should provide the detail necessary.