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Executive Summary
This paper uses the recent Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (SGVP) to determine if differences arise in the labour-market response to volunteering across regions in Canada. To this end, it includes observations on all individuals who are employed (either part-time or full-time) in this survey. Several points are worthy of note:
- The characteristics of volunteers differ quite substantially across regions; their
participation rates vary from 30 per cent of the Quebec population of employed individuals
to 45 per cent of employed individuals in the Prairies.
- The differences between volunteers and non-volunteers are relatively stable across all
regions.
- In the probit model of the decision to volunteer, individuals respond differently according
to the region in which they reside. For instance, being an immigrant is largely irrelevant
for this decision in all regions except British Columbia and Ontario where it has a
negative impact. The age of the individual also has different effects on the probability of
volunteering, depending upon the region in question.
- All individuals are motivated to volunteer by the expected earnings differential.
- The earnings differential between volunteers and non-volunteers is estimated to be 13 per
cent in British Columbia, 7 per cent in Quebec, 5 per cent in Ontario, 3 per cent in the
Prairies and 1 per cent in Atlantic Canada. Clearly, regional differences in the responses
to volunteering do indeed exist.
- It is unlikely that regional migration would dissipate any variations in earnings
attributable to volunteering for two reasons: first, regional disparities are a fact of
life in Canada despite a plethora of policies designed to mitigate them; and second, to the
extent that the earnings differential arises as a result of networking, it would be
virtually impossible to transfer a network of contacts from one region to another - hence
removing any possible incentive to move in response to earnings differentials gained from
volunteering.
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