CANADIAN CHILD BENEFITS - BEHAVIORAL CONSEQUENCES AND INCOME ADEQUACY

This paper assesses two dimensions of the new Canadian child benefit s ystem. First, evidence is presented to show that the earned-income sup plement (EIS) will not increase the labour supply of parents with low earnings. Second, the paper demonstrates that the level of child benef its is low by international standards, both in terms of offsetting chi ld costs for all families with children and in terms of alleviating ch ild poverty.