Welcome to the website of the Research Group on Human Capital of UQAM’s School of Management (ESG UQAM).
The main objective of the Research Group on Human Capital (Groupe de recherche sur le capital humain) is to contribute to the economics research on all aspects of human capital, using mainly a microeconometric approach based on survey microdata representative of the population or on administrative data. The Group’s research themes include notably education, labor and well-being, and concern above all children, youth and families. One of the priorities of the Research Group on Human Capital is to study the effects of public policies on human capital and its development broadly speaking, as well as on inequalities.
News
Marie Connolly at the Matinée RQAP 2023

November 13, 2023 – At the Matinée RQAP 2023, Marie Connolly, Director of the GRCH, will have the opportunity to speak about the paper Child Penalties in Canada, which she co-authored with Marie Mélanie Fontaine and Catherine Haeck and which is forthcoming in Canadian Public Policy. The Matinée RQAP is an opportunity to discuss the challenges facing Quebec women and families in a changing labour market, as well as the evolving contribution of public policies such as the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP).
The event will take place at Salle Godin, Hôtel10, 10 rue Sherbrooke O, Montreal, on November 28, 2023, from 7:45 a.m. to noon. Please note this event will be held in French.
To register and learn more about the event.
Laëtitia Renée and Xavier St-Denis join the GRCH
October 6th 2023 – The Research Group on Human Capital (GRCH) is proud to welcome two new researchers !

Laëtitia Renée joined the Department of Economics at the University of Montreal in 2022, holding a Ph.D. from McGill University. Her specialization is in econometrics, and she focuses on socio-economic inequalities in education as well as gender disparities in the labor market.

Xavier St-Denis is an assistant professor specializing in social inequalities at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), Center for Urbanization, Culture, and Society. He also serves as the director of the Group for the Study of Social Statistics (GESS). His areas of interest encompass socio-economic inequalities in education and employment, the sociology of work and organizations, and social demography.
The expertise of Laëtitia Renée and Xavier St-Denis will undoubtedly be appreciated within the GRCH!
Events
Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility

The Research Group on Human Capital will hold its seventh workshop on Friday, December 8, 2023, at the University of Quebec in Montreal. Seven academic researchers from the fields of Economics, Sociology and Computer Science will present recent work. The presentations primarily feature empirical research using microeconometric models, with a particular emphasis on questions of identification of causal effects. The workshop is intended to promote discussion and exchanges on the theme of intergenerational mobility and its association with immigration. The workshop is open not only to academics (professors, researchers, graduate students), but also to administrators and policymakers as well as to officials from governmental institutions with an interest in the topic.
The workshop will take place at the University of Quebec in Montreal, building Président-Kennedy, 201 Président-Kennedy Avenue (Place-des-Arts metro station), room PK-1140, from 9:00 AM to 4:45 PM.
For the schedule, registration, and more details, follow this link.
Seminar – Geographic mobility and intergenerational transmission of income in Quebec

If the region in which a person grows up is a strong determinant of their chances of improving their situation compared to that of their parents, then the social elevator is broken. Despite initiatives to promote equal opportunities, the reproduction of inequalities from generation to generation has worsened in Quebec in recent decades.

During this seminar organized by CIRANO, Marie Connolly, Xavier St-Denis and Yacine Boujija will present the results of the very first study which examines the influence of geographic mobility on the intergenerational transmission of income in Quebec. They follow the journey of 1.4 million young people and show that the phenomenon of social immobility affects more young people who grew up outside big cities, and particularly those who still live there in their early thirties.
The seminar will take place at the CIRANO (Center for Interuniversity Research and Analysis of Organizations) – Suite 1400, 1130 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest in Montreal, on Monday, October 30 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
For registration and more details, follow this link.
In the Media
Le Devoir | Une panne de l’ascenseur social en région?

September 29, 2023 – Work by Yacine Boujija, Marie Connolly and Xavier St-Denis, presented in a CIRANO report (in French) and an article in the Revue PERSPECTIVES, is the subject of an article by Éric Desrosiers in the newspaper Le Devoir. The report “Mobilité géographique et transmission intergénérationnelle du revenu au Québec,” accompanied by the short pieces “Monter dans le train et gravir l’échelle sociale. Le rôle de la mobilité géographique dans la lutte contre les inégalités au Québec,” and “Take the train and climb the social ladder. The role of geographical mobility in the fight against inequality in Quebec,” delves into the socioeconomic mobility of close to 1.4 million young Quebeckers born in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The authors find that the declining socioeconomic mobility in Québec was particularly strong for youth growing up in rural areas who did not migrate to cities.