IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/acb/cbeeco/2005-456.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Beyond Brigden: Australia’s Pre-War Manufacturing Tariffs, Real Wages and Economic Size

Author

Listed:
  • Rod Tyers
  • William Coleman

Abstract

Like many industrialised economies in the pre-depression era, Australia elected to maintain a highly protectionist trade policy regime and hence to retard its integration with the global economy. The rationale for Australia’s protectionism was, as elsewhere, the enhancement of worker welfare. The Brigden Report offered a pre-Stolper-Samuelson recognition that protection of labour intensive industries would bolster Australia’s real wage, though the Report did not highlight the further consequence that this would attract European migrants. Brigden’s wage effect mirrors the subsequent Stolper-Samuelson Theorem and Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson (HOS) model yet it has still more advanced elements. We illustrate it using the strict two-sector HOS model and a more modern version with differentiated products, three sectors, including a non-traded services sector, natural resources as a specific factor and foreign ownership of domestic capital. While ever production remains diversified, the HOS model with elastic migration does not support a unique link between a single region’s protection and its labour endowment. The more modern model does yield this link, however, suggesting that protection might indeed have fostered, at least temporarily, immigration, capital inflow and overall economic expansion in Australia.

Suggested Citation

  • Rod Tyers & William Coleman, 2005. "Beyond Brigden: Australia’s Pre-War Manufacturing Tariffs, Real Wages and Economic Size," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2005-456, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:acb:cbeeco:2005-456
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/econ/wp456.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tyers, R. & Yang, Y., 1999. "European Unemployment, US Wages, and the Asian Emergence," Papers 367, Australian National University - Department of Economics.
    2. Richard A. Brecher, 1974. "Minimum Wage Rates and the Pure Theory of International Trade," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 88(1), pages 98-116.
    3. Mussa, Michael, 1974. "Tariffs and the Distribution of Income: The Importance of Factor Specificity, Substitutability, and Intensity in the Short and Long Run," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(6), pages 1191-1203, Nov.-Dec..
    4. Donald R. Davis, 1996. "Does European Unemployment Prop up American Wages?," NBER Working Papers 5620, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. J. B. Brigden, 1927. "Comment On Mr. Benham'S Restatement," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 3(2), pages 249-251, November.
    6. J. B. Brigden, 1927. "The Australian Tariff. And The Standard Of Living: A Rejoinder," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 3(1), pages 102-116, May.
    7. Davis, Donald R, 1998. "Does European Unemployment Prop Up American Wages? National Labor Markets and Global Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 478-494, June.
    8. Manger, Gary J, 1981. "The Australian Case for Protection Reconsidered," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(37), pages 193-204, December.
    9. Unknown, 1986. "Letters," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 1(4), pages 1-9.
    10. J. B. Briqden, 1925. "The Australian Tariff And The Standard Of Living," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 1(1), pages 29-46, November.
    11. D. B. Copland, 1931. "A Neglected Phase of Tariff Controversy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 45(2), pages 289-308.
    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. Rod Tyers & Aaron Walker, 2016. "Quantifying Australia's ‘Three-Speed’ Boom," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 49(1), pages 20-43, March.
    2. Ian W. McLean, 2010. "Responding to Shocks: Australia's Institutions and Policies," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2010-30, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    3. Yuwen Dai, 2007. "Macro Regime and Economic Growth in China," DEGIT Conference Papers c012_015, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.

    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. Rod Tyers & William Coleman, 2008. "Beyond Brigden: Australia's Inter‐War Manufacturing Tariffs, Real Wages and Economic Size," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 84(264), pages 50-67, March.
    2. Donald R. Davis & Trevor A. Reeve, 1997. "Human Capital, Unemployment and Relative Wages in a Global Economy," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1804, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    3. Davis, Donald R., 1998. "Technology, unemployment, and relative wages in a global economy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 1613-1633, November.
    4. Elhanan Helpman, 2014. "Foreign Trade and Investment: Firm-level Perspectives," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(321), pages 1-14, January.
    5. Schweinberger, Albert G., 2001. "Capital, heterogeneous labour, global goods markets and unemployment," Discussion Papers, Series I 309, University of Konstanz, Department of Economics.
    6. repec:dgr:rugsom:00c21 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Tobias Seidel, 2004. "Globalisierung und Arbeitsmärkte : welche Auswirkungen haben Standortverlagerungen für Deutschland?," ifo Dresden berichtet, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 11(05), pages 23-28, October.
    8. Kala Krishna & Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay & Cemile Yavas, 2005. "Trade with Labor Market Distortions and Heterogeneous Labor: Why Trade Can Hurt," Contributions to Economics, in: Günter S. Heiduk & Kar-yiu Wong (ed.), WTO and World Trade, pages 65-83, Springer.
    9. Sener, Fuat, 2001. "Schumpeterian unemployment, trade and wages," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 119-148, June.
    10. Nakakuki, Masayuki & Otani, Akira & Shiratsuka, Shigenori, 2004. "Distortions in Factor Markets and Structural Adjustments in the Economy," Monetary and Economic Studies, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan, vol. 22(2), pages 71-99, May.
    11. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 2006. "Das deutsche Rätsel," Munich Reprints in Economics 950, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    12. Boulhol, Hervé, 2011. "Unemployment and relative labor market institutions between trading partners," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 83-91, January.
    13. Olarreaga, Marcelo & Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric & Fugazza, Marco & Carrère, Céline, 2014. "Trade in Unemployment," CEPR Discussion Papers 9916, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Ruffin, Roy J., 2001. "Quasi-specific factors: worker comparative advantage in the two-sector production model," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 445-461, April.
    15. repec:gnv:wpaper:unige:77631 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Guido G. Porto, 2008. "Agro-Manufactured Export Prices, Wages and Unemployment," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(3), pages 748-764.
    17. Hervé Boulhol, 2008. "Unemployment and interactions between trade and labour market institutions," Post-Print halshs-00261478, HAL.
    18. Tobias Seidel, 2005. "Who is Reaping the Gains from Globalisation? – The Role of Labour Market Flexibility," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 3(1), pages 54-59, 04.
    19. Hans‐Werner Sinn, 2006. "Das deutsche Rätsel: Warum wir Exportweltmeister und Schlusslicht zugleich sind," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 7(1), pages 1-18, February.
    20. David Hummels & Jakob R. Munch & Chong Xiang, 2018. "Offshoring and Labor Markets," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 981-1028, September.
    21. Hartmut Egger & Simone Habermeyer, 2022. "How preferences shape the welfare and employment effects of trade," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 158(3), pages 815-853, August.
    22. Richard A. Brecher & Zhihao Yu, 2021. "Unemployment effects of trade with a low‐wage country: A minimum‐wage model with sector‐specific factors," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 402-408, May.

    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:acb:cbeeco:2005-456. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feanuau.html .

    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.