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The first article examines the determinants of participation in, and the amount of time spent on, public and private adult education and training in Canada. Using the data from the 1998 Adult Education and Training Survey, we estimate probit models of adult education and training incidence and hurdle models of total time spent in training. Consistent with the literature, we find that relatively advantaged workers acquire more training, often with financial help from their employers. Direct government-sponsored training represents a relative minor component of total training, and is not well targeted to the disadvantaged. We also find large provincial differences in the incidence of training.

The second article attempts to tackle the puzzle of why more Canadians choose community colleges over universities than their American counterparts, when previous research has suggested that the return to community college education is low in Canada. Using data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics for Canada and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79 for the United States, I estimate earnings premium of education using various instruments and models. I find that Canadians have a relatively strong incentive to choose community colleges if occupational choices are controlled for. The self-selection processes in the two countries appear to be different.

The third article re-examines the "sheepskin" effect of educational credentials in Canada using data from the 1996 Census. I investigate the impact of relaxing the specification of the experience profile and the linear functional form assumption in the standard Mincer model on the estimates of sheepskin effects. I find that the estimated credential effects are sensitive to specifications. Regression analysis in the standard model is not adequate to control for the workers' productivity difference unrelated to the credentials. Misspecification of the earnings equation introduces biases into the estimates of credential effects. With carefully constructed comparison groups, the estimated sheepskin effects of a Bachelor's degree are smaller than that previously reported in the literature.