Economic and Social Reports, February 2023

The February 2023 issue of Economic and Social Reports, which contains three articles, is now available.

Insights on research on inflation

Consumer spending has been impacted by high inflation since price pressures began to build in early 2021. Using expenditure weights from the Consumer Price Index, the article "Assessing the rise in broad-based inflationary pressure during 2021 and 2022" reports on the share of the expenditure basket that falls into different inflationary ranges, first based on all measured products and services, and then separately for food products.

While consumer inflation eased substantially in late 2022, as gas prices fell, key sources of upward price pressure—including food and shelter—showed little signs of moderating. December 2022 marked the twenty-first consecutive month that the headline rate has been above 3%, and the tenth consecutive month it has been above 6%. Overall, consumer prices have increased by 11.4% during the past two years, while grocery prices have increased by 17.4%.

The presentation "Research to Insights: Consumer price inflation, recent trends and analysis" has also been released today to support Canadians in understanding the determinants of higher prices.

Looking at patenting by women business owners

In today's knowledge-based economy, innovative activity and intellectual property are of increasing importance. The article "Patenting activity of women-owned businesses in Canada" presents some of the first evidence on patenting by gender of business owner in Canada. From 2001 to 2019, businesses owned by men accounted for a larger share of patent applications than businesses owned by women and those owned by both genders equally, and the gender gap did not narrow over the period. A notable difference between the men- and women-owned businesses that patent was that men-owned businesses were 16.5 percentage points more likely to have conducted research and development, and, conditional on doing so, spent 70% more. This may explain why men-owned firms that patent have more applications per firm, and why men-owned businesses have a higher rate of those applications being granted.

These findings add to the literature on the gender gap in patenting, as most of it has focused on women as researchers or inventors, and not as business owners. Additionally, studying the gender participation in patent filings is useful to understand the systemic barriers that women may face, not only during their education, but also during their careers.

More evidence of women's contribution to the economy

This Spotlight on Data and Research article summarizes recent Statistics Canada research that focuses on improving estimates of women's contribution to the economy—through paid and unpaid work.

Recent Statistics Canada articles provided estimates of women's contribution to paid and unpaid work, respectively. The article "Measuring the value of women's contribution to the Canadian economy: New insights based on recent work" looks at those estimates in combination. In 2018, women contributed 28.5% to gross domestic product (paid work). When including the value of unpaid work, their contribution to economic activity rises to 35.8%. By contrast, men contributed 47.5% to the total value of paid and unpaid work. The remaining portion is income that cannot be assigned to a gender.

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