PPT Slide
Changes in the employment/unemployment insurance program during the 1990s explain only 3 % of the drop in the youth participation rate during this period, or about 0.2 percentage points, and they had no measurable effect on the school enrolment rate.
Changes in social assistance appear to have had a negligible total effect on the youth participation and school enrolment rates.
Increases in the minimum wage explain 8% of the drop in the youth participation rate in the 1990s.
Our results indicate that the youth participation rate is unlikely to return to 1990 levels in the near future, since nearly two thirds of the decline observed in the 1990s is of a structural nature.