IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v12y2001i2p285-302.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labour Market Flexibility and the Output-Employment Ratio in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • A. Stegman
  • T. Stegman

Abstract

This paper addresses two questions with regard to Australia's unemployment policies over the last decade: namely, the extent to which labour market reform has led to increased labour market flexibility; and the extent to which increased output per worker has meant that strong GDP growth has been translated into correspondingly large reductions in unemployment. With regard to the first question, we use shifts in the Beveridge Curve as a measure of changes in flexibility (following Solow). Shifts in the Beveridge Curve suggest that changes in the efficiency of labour market matching reflect the cyclical effects of hysteresis rather than the effects of labour market reform. With regard to the second question, we decompose changes in the output-employment ratio into structural effects, average hours effects, and residual factor intensity effects. We identify those sectors of the economy in which output per worker has increased significantly.

Suggested Citation

  • A. Stegman & T. Stegman, 2001. "Labour Market Flexibility and the Output-Employment Ratio in Australia," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 12(2), pages 285-302, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:12:y:2001:i:2:p:285-302
    DOI: 10.1177/103530460101200209
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/103530460101200209
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/103530460101200209?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Layard, Richard & Nickell, Stephen & Jackman, Richard, 2005. "Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199279173.
    2. Abraham, Katharine G & Katz, Lawrence F, 1986. "Cyclical Unemployment: Sectoral Shifts or Aggregate Disturbances?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 507-522, June.
    3. Stegman, A. & Stegman, T., 1999. "Labour Market Flexibility, the Beveridge Curve, and the Output-Employment Ratio in Australia," Papers 99/16, New South Wales - School of Economics.
    4. Guy Debelle & James Vickery, 1998. "The Macroeconomics of Australian Unemployment," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Guy Debelle & Jeff Borland (ed.),Unemployment and the Australian Labour Market, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    5. repec:bla:econom:v:58:y:1991:i:231:p:279-97 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Blanchard, Olivier J. & Summers, Lawrence H., 1987. "Hysteresis in unemployment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-2), pages 288-295.
    7. Iain Campbell & Peter Brosnan, 1999. "Labour Market Deregulation in Australia: The slow combustion approach to workplace change," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 353-394.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. W D A Bryant, 2009. "General Equilibrium:Theory and Evidence," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 6875, August.
    2. Alison Stegman, 2011. "Sectoral Productivity, Structural Change and Convergence," CAMA Working Papers 2011-32, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    3. Paul Oslington, 2012. "General Equilibrium: Theory and Evidence," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(282), pages 446-448, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jeff Borland & Ian McDonald, 2000. "Labour Market Models of Unemployment in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2000n15, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    2. Vincenzo Di Maro, 2002. "Il NAIRU: la stima e l’effetto della riallocazione settoriale permanente dell’occupazione," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 92(6), pages 69-110, November-.
    3. Mussida, Chiara & Pastore, Francesco, 2012. "Is There a Southern-Sclerosis? Worker Reallocation and Regional Unemployment in Italy," IZA Discussion Papers 6954, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Engelbert Stockhammer & Simon Sturn, 2012. "The impact of monetary policy on unemployment hysteresis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(21), pages 2743-2756, July.
    5. Christopher A. Pissarides, 2003. "Unemployment in Britain: A European Success Story," CESifo Working Paper Series 981, CESifo.
    6. repec:zbw:rwirep:0005 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Apergis, Nicholas, 2005. "An estimation of the natural rate of unemployment in Greece," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 91-99, February.
    8. Marjan Petreski & Nikica Mojsoska-Blazevski, 2013. "Real Wages in the Manufacturing Industry in Macedonia: The Role of Macroeconomic Factors, with Reference to Recession Times," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 113-126, January.
    9. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6120 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/2005 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Olivier Blanchard & Lawrence F. Katz, 1997. "What We Know and Do Not Know about the Natural Rate of Unemployment," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 51-72, Winter.
    12. Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Gil-Alana, Luis A., 2008. "Modelling the US, UK and Japanese unemployment rates: Fractional integration and structural breaks," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(11), pages 4998-5013, July.
    13. Lucas Papademos, 2005. "Macroeconomic theory and monetary policy: the contributions of Franco Modigliani and the ongoing debate," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 58(233-234), pages 187-214.
    14. Lindbeck, A & Snower, D-J, 1996. "Centralized Bargaining, Multi-Tasking, and Work Incentives," Papers 620, Stockholm - International Economic Studies.
    15. William J. Luther & J. P. McElyea, 2018. "Austrian Macroeconomics in Search of Its Uniqueness," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 33(Summer 20), pages 1-20.
    16. Marika Karanassou & Hector Sala & Dennis J. Snower, 2010. "Phillips Curves And Unemployment Dynamics: A Critique And A Holistic Perspective," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 1-51, February.
    17. Bachmann Ronald & Burda Michael C., 2010. "Sectoral Transformation, Turbulence and Labor Market Dynamics in Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 37-59, February.
    18. Patrick Minford & Ruthira Naraidoo, 2010. "Vicious And Virtuous Circles – The Political Economy Of Unemployment," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 78(1), pages 1-22, March.
    19. Chang, Yongsung & Nam, Jaeryang & Rhee, Changyong, 2004. "Trends in unemployment rates in Korea: A search-matching model interpretation," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 241-263, June.
    20. Aurélien Gaimon & Vincent Lapegue & Paola Veroni & Noé N'Semi & Frédéric Reynés & Maël Theulière, 2007. "Does the interaction between shocks and institutions solve the OECD unemployment puzzle ? A theoretical and empirical appraisal," Working Papers hal-03602950, HAL.
    21. Luis Alberiko Gil-Alana & Zeynel Abidin Ozdemir & Aysit Tansel, 2019. "Long Memory in Turkish Unemployment Rates," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(1), pages 201-217, January.
    22. Fábio Augusto Reis Gomes & Cleomar Gomes da Silva, 2006. "Hysteresis Vs. Nairu And Convergence Vs. Divergence: The Behavior Of Regional Unemployment Rates In Brazil," Anais do XXXIV Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 34th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 161, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    23. Dinand Webbink & Pierre Koning & Sunčica Vujić & Nicholas G. Martin, 2013. "Why Are Criminals Less Educated than Non-Criminals? Evidence from a Cohort of Young Australian Twins," Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 29(1), pages 115-144, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:12:y:2001:i:2:p:285-302. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.