Ernie Lightman received his BA in economics and political science from the University of Toronto and his MA and PhD in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. After graduation he taught for two years at the London School of Economics and for the last 30 years has been a professor of social policy at the University of Toronto Faculty of Social Work. In 1991–92 he was a one person commission of inquiry looking into unregulated housing for vulnerable adults in Ontario. For the last seven years he has been Principal Investigator for major studies funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) on precarious work, its health outcomes, and welfareto- work programs in Ontario. He is also author of Social Policy in Canada (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2003).