This article presents a set of techniques to measure and analyse the structure of the information economy of a country using input‐output methods. Published national data bases…
Abstract
This article presents a set of techniques to measure and analyse the structure of the information economy of a country using input‐output methods. Published national data bases for many countries fail to identify the information economy and the focus has been on the measurement of conventional sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and services. However, it is now widely recognised that the information sector is emerging as a major force in the restructuring and growth of many economies in the world. The measurement and analysis of this information economy is invaluable for proper policy formulation in this information age. The article demonstrates the operational nature of the techniques proposed herein, by their application to Australia and a few developing economies in the Pacific.
The dissolving trade barriers, financial deregulation, hyper‐mobility of capital and the rapid diffusion of new information technologies have ushered the Australian economy into…
Abstract
The dissolving trade barriers, financial deregulation, hyper‐mobility of capital and the rapid diffusion of new information technologies have ushered the Australian economy into the borderless world. The orthodoxy that states that centralised wage‐fixing in Australia has impeded wage flexibility and resulted in high unemployment is unconvincing. Partly, this is because in the 1980s Australian labour market institutions have been decentralised and decollectivised in response to pressures from the borderless world. The insights garnered from cross‐sectional comparative statics that, first, skill‐biased Schumpeterian technological change was the major cause of labour immiserisation and, second, adverse Stolper‐Samuelson trade played an insignificant effect need to be reviewed. Parsimonious dynamic time‐series models of trade and technology have been formulated using general‐to‐specific methods after taking account of stochastic trends through unit root and cointegration tests. Granger causality and non‐nested tests applied to these models support the contention that both trade and technology contributed to increasing wage disparity during the borderless era. Moreover the supply side factors such as female participation, immigration and institutional factors such as deunionisation have also increased wage disparity. The deregulation of the Australian labour market by the Workplace Relations Act, whilst an inevitable response to achieve competitiveness in the borderless world market, would exacerbate wage inequality. Policies aimed at skill accumulation on the one hand, and social welfare policies involving negative income taxes on the other may have to be implemented to mitigate the deleterious social effects of rising wage inequality.
Details
Keywords
Since the Second World War the Transnational Corporations (TNCs) have emerged as powerful engines of growth and development in the world economy. Much controversy surrounds the…
Abstract
Since the Second World War the Transnational Corporations (TNCs) have emerged as powerful engines of growth and development in the world economy. Much controversy surrounds the issues of TNCs' benign and malign effects on the development aspirations of host developing countries (HDCs). The TNCs exert immense economic power over HDCs by virtue of their proprietary control over a package of ingredients much sought after by HDCs. This TNC package comprises capital, technology, managerial talent, marketing networks, information and know‐how. The TNCs carefully safeguard their ownership of this package by patents, licences, trade‐marks and a variety of other legal devices. The ownership of the package enables TNCs to extract monopoly rents from HDCs.
Internationalisation of the Australian economy is profoundly changing the macroeconomic fabric of the Australian labour market. This study aims to shed light on both trade and…
Abstract
Internationalisation of the Australian economy is profoundly changing the macroeconomic fabric of the Australian labour market. This study aims to shed light on both trade and technology effects on the Australian labour market during the study period 1983(4)‐1995(3). The study uses unit root and multicointegration econometrics, general to specific modelling and encompassing tests to test how trade liberalisation and technical progress have immiserised Australian labour by increasing unemployment or through the widening of skill differentiated wage disparity. The study concludes with some policy perspectives on labour market deregulation in Australia.
Details
Keywords
Uses parametric Granger causality techniques to test whether trade acted as an engine of growth during the period 1971(2)‐1994(2) in Australia. The causality tests were performed…
Abstract
Uses parametric Granger causality techniques to test whether trade acted as an engine of growth during the period 1971(2)‐1994(2) in Australia. The causality tests were performed on time‐series data that were filtered after unit root and cointegration testing. During the study period there was a dramatic shift from a protectionist to a more liberal trading regime in Australia. Superexogeneity tests were applied to the conditional growth and the marginal trade policy models derived by the application of general to specific methodology. The superexogeneity tests examined whether the shift from a protectionist to a more liberal trading regime in the mid‐1980s undermined the structure of Australian trade growth dynamics as foreshadowed in the Lucas critique. Reviews the macropolicy implications of the trade policy regime shift.
Details
Keywords
This study reviews the emergence of Thailand in the 1990s as the Fifth Tiger economy of Asia following the regime switch from an import substitution to export oriented…
Abstract
This study reviews the emergence of Thailand in the 1990s as the Fifth Tiger economy of Asia following the regime switch from an import substitution to export oriented industrialisation policy. A Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model was formulated to analyse the macroeconomic and sectoral implications of implementing trade liberalisation policies in Thailand. The theoretical structure, database underpinning the model and the solution technique used to generate empirical results are explained. The simulation of trade liberalisation policy has been proxied by an across‐the‐board tariff cut on the sectoral imports. The comparative statics of both the macroeconomic and sectoral effects of trade liberalisation policy simulation over the decade ending in the year 2000 are analysed in detail. The study concludes with some observations on the controversy surrounding the distributional effects of trade liberalisation in Thailand.
Details
Keywords
A.N.M. Waheeduzzaman and John K. Ryans
Competitiveness is one of the most misunderstood concepts of the 1990s. It has drawn substantial attention from the government and business communities during the last 25 years…
Abstract
Competitiveness is one of the most misunderstood concepts of the 1990s. It has drawn substantial attention from the government and business communities during the last 25 years. Morrisson et al. (1988) noted that between 1983 and 1987, the term competitiveness appeared more than 5700 times in the titles of newspapers and magazine articles. The growth of importance and interest can also be observed from the increase in the bibliographical entries in ABI/Inform database. From 1981 to 1986, the topic “international competitiveness” increased by about 26 listings per year (a total of 159 in 6 years) and the rate increased to 45 listings per year from 1987 to 1993. Academic interest in the area has also increased and as a result, new developments contemplating conceptualization and understanding of competitiveness are taking place. However, to no one's surprise, writers from different disciplines offer a variation in perspective when describing the concept, understanding, and postulation of competitiveness.
The ultimate goal of competitiveness is the well being of the citizens of a country. From this perspective, this study investigates the contribution of international…
Abstract
The ultimate goal of competitiveness is the well being of the citizens of a country. From this perspective, this study investigates the contribution of international competitiveness on per capita income, human development, and inequality in 45 countries of the world. Correlation and regression analysis were conducted to determine the relationships. The results indicate that international competitiveness positively influences per capita income and human development. Competitiveness also influences the reduction of inequality in a country. Longitudinal studies with more country data needs to be conducted to further the relationships established through cross‐sectional research.