IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecorec/v82y2006i257p207-224.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From Golden Age to Golden Age: Australia's ‘Great Leap Forward’?

Author

Listed:
  • PAUL FRIJTERS
  • ROBERT GREGORY

Abstract

The 25 years after World War II witnessed strong labour market institutions and beneficial labour market outcomes – high wage growth and integration of low‐skilled immigrants. Then came the macro shocks of the mid‐1970s. Labour market outcomes deteriorated as full‐time employment–population ratios fell, particularly among men; unemployment and welfare use increased; and real wages grew slowly. The golden age passed. In response, successive governments have increasingly begun to dismantle the institutional framework. We address this transition within a simple long‐run graphical framework to help us marshal facts and arguments and to discuss the likely impact of institutional reform.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Frijters & Robert Gregory, 2006. "From Golden Age to Golden Age: Australia's ‘Great Leap Forward’?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 82(257), pages 207-224, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:82:y:2006:i:257:p:207-224
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4932.2006.00316.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4932.2006.00316.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1475-4932.2006.00316.x?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gerfin, Michael & Lechner, Michael & Steiger, Heidi, 2005. "Does subsidised temporary employment get the unemployed back to work? Aneconometric analysis of two different schemes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(6), pages 807-835, December.
    2. Andrew Leigh, 2004. "Minimum Wages and Employment: Reply," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 37(2), pages 173-179, June.
    3. Bambra, Clare & Whitehead, Margaret & Hamilton, Val, 2005. "Does 'welfare-to-work' work? A systematic review of the effectiveness of the UK's welfare-to-work programmes for people with a disability or chronic illness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(9), pages 1905-1918, May.
    4. Mitchel Y. Abolafia (ed.), 2005. "Markets," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2788.
    5. Andrew Leigh, 2007. "Does Raising the Minimum Wage Help the Poor?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 83(263), pages 432-445, December.
    6. Paul Frijters, 1997. "Capital scarcities as a reason for high unemployment in the European Union," Macroeconomics 9706002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Fougere, Denis & Kramarz, Francis & Magnac, Thierry, 2000. "Youth employment policies in France," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(4-6), pages 928-942, May.
    8. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2005. "Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality: Re-Assessing the Revisionists," NBER Working Papers 11627, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Gareth Leeves, 2002. "Youth Unemployment Outflow Rates And Labor Market Programs: Australian Evidence," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 20(3), pages 301-315, July.
    10. Frölich, Markus & Lechner, Michael, 2004. "Regional Treatment Intensity as an Instrument for the Evaluation of Labour Market Policies," IZA Discussion Papers 1095, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. E. Paul Durrenberger, 2005. "Labour," Chapters, in: James G. Carrier (ed.), A Handbook of Economic Anthropology, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Richard Dickens & Alan Manning, 2004. "Spikes and spill-overs: The impact of the national minimum wage on the wage distribution in a low-wage sector," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(494), pages 95-101, March.
    13. Lixin Cai, 2004. "An Analysis of Durations on the Disability Support Pension (DSP) Program," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2004n08, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    14. Dickens, Richard & Alan Manning, 2003. "The Impact of the National Minimum Wage on the Wage Distribution in a Low-Wage Sector," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2003 60, Royal Economic Society.
    15. Emmanuel Saez, 2001. "Using Elasticities to Derive Optimal Income Tax Rates," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 68(1), pages 205-229.
    16. Andrew Leigh, 2005. "Deriving Long‐Run Inequality Series from Tax Data," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 81(s1), pages 58-70, August.
    17. A.M. Dockery & Elizabeth Webster, 2002. "Long-Term Unemployment and Work Deprived individuals: issues and Policies," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 5(2), pages 175-193, June.
    18. Stephen Machin & Joan Wilson, 2004. "Minimum wages in a low-wage labour market: Care homes in the UK," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(494), pages 102-109, March.
    19. Plug, Erik J. S. & van Praag, Bernard M. S. & Hartog, Joop, 1999. "If we knew ability, how would we tax individuals?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 183-211, May.
    20. Bob Gregory, 1999. "Labour Market Institutions and the Gender Pay Ratio," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 32(3), pages 273-278, September.
    21. Lisa Farrell & Paul Frijters, 2008. "Choosing to become a 'lost cause': the perverse effects of benefit preconditions," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 60(1), pages 1-19, January.
    22. R. G. Gregory & R. C. Duncan, 1981. "Segmented Labor Market Theories and the Australian Experience of Equal Pay for Women," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(3), pages 403-428, April.
    23. Boyd H. Hunter, 2003. "The Rise of the CDEP Scheme and Changing Factors Underlying Indigenous Male Employment," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(3), pages 473-496, September.
    24. Culley, M & Curtain, R ., 2001. "New apprenticeships: An unheralded Labour Market Program," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 27(3), pages 204-215.
    25. Diamond, Peter A, 1998. "Optimal Income Taxation: An Example with a U-Shaped Pattern of Optimal Marginal Tax Rates," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(1), pages 83-95, March.
    26. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March.
    27. Webster, E & Johnson, D, 2002. "The equity effects of labour market programs," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 28(3), pages 198-227.
    28. Robert Haveman & Barbara Wolfe, 2002. "The 1996 US welfare reform: objectives, effects and lessons," Chapters, in: Hugh Mosley & Jacqueline O’Reilly (ed.), Labour Markets, Gender and Institutional Change, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    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. Robert G Gregory, 2012. "Living standards, terms of trade and foreign ownership: reflections on the Australian mining boom," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 56(2), pages 171-200, April.
    2. Borland, Jeff, 2005. "Impacts of Employment Regulation: Towards an Evaluation Framework," Occasional Papers 06/7, Ministry of Economic Development, New Zealand.
    3. Paul Frijters & David Johnston & Michael Shields, 2012. "The Optimality of Tax Transfers: What does Life Satisfaction Data Tell Us?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(5), pages 821-832, October.
    4. Herault, Nicolas & Vu, Ha & Wilkins, Roger, 2020. "The Effect of Job Search Requirements on Welfare Receipt," IZA Discussion Papers 13684, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Productivity Commission, 2007. "Potential Benefits of the National Reform Agenda," Research Papers 0701, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia.
    6. Robert G. Gregory, 2013. "The Henderson Question? The Melbourne Institute and 50 Years of Welfare Policy," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 46(2), pages 202-215, June.

    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. repec:ilo:ilowps:462988 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Hellwig, Christian & Werquin, Nicolas, 2022. "A Fair Day's Pay for a Fair Day's Work: Optimal Tax Design as Redistributional Arbitrage," TSE Working Papers 22-1284, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Jan 2023.
    3. Dimitris Pavlopoulos & Ruud Muffels & Jeroen Vermunt, 2010. "Wage mobility in Europe. A comparative analysis using restricted multinomial logit regression," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 115-129, January.
    4. Bas Jacobs, 2013. "Optimal redistributive tax and education policies in general equilibrium," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(2), pages 312-337, April.
    5. Casey Rothschild & Florian Scheuer, 2014. "A Theory of Income Taxation under Multidimensional Skill Heterogeneity," NBER Working Papers 19822, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Fatih Guvenen & Burhanettin Kuruscu, 2010. "A Quantitative Analysis of the Evolution of the US Wage Distribution, 1970–2000," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2009, Volume 24, pages 227-276, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. da Costa, Carlos E. & Pereira, Thiago, 2014. "On the efficiency of equal sacrifice income tax schedules," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 399-418.
    8. Findeisen, Sebastian & Sachs, Dominik, 2014. "Efficient Labor and Capital Income Taxation over the Life Cycle," Working Papers 14-17, University of Mannheim, Department of Economics.
    9. Benjamin B. Lockwood & Afras Sial & Matthew Weinzierl, 2020. "Designing, Not Checking, for Policy Robustness: An Example with Optimal Taxation," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 35, pages 1-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Findeisen, Sebastian & Sachs, Dominik, 2017. "Redistribution and insurance with simple tax instruments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 58-78.
    11. Islam, Nizamul & Colombino, Ugo, 2018. "The case for NIT+FT in Europe. An empirical optimal taxation exercise," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 38-69.
    12. Massimo Morelli & Huanxing Yang & Lixin Ye, 2012. "Competitive Nonlinear Taxation and Constitutional Choice," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 142-175, February.
    13. Laurence Jacquet & Etienne Lehmann, 2023. "Optimal tax problems with multidimensional heterogeneity: a mechanism design approach," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 60(1), pages 135-164, January.
    14. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:8:y:2006:i:2:p:1-6 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Costinot, Arnaud & Werning, Iván, 2018. "Robots, Trade, and Luddism: A Sufficient Statistic Approach to Optimal Technology Regulation," CEPR Discussion Papers 13209, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. David A. Weisbach, 2008. "What Does Happiness Research Tell Us About Taxation?," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(S2), pages 293-324, June.
    17. Karl Schulz, 2021. "Redistribution of Return Inequality," CESifo Working Paper Series 8996, CESifo.
    18. Laurence Jacquet & Etienne lehmann & Bruno Van Der Linden, 2012. "Signing distortions in optimal tax or other adverse selection models with random participation," THEMA Working Papers 2012-27, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    19. Berger, Johannes & Strohner, Ludwig, 2020. "Documentation of the PUblic Policy Model for Austria and other European countries (PUMA)," Research Papers 11, EcoAustria – Institute for Economic Research.
    20. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez & Stefanie Stantcheva, 2014. "Optimal Taxation of Top Labor Incomes: A Tale of Three Elasticities," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 230-271, February.
    21. Marek Kapička, 2015. "Optimal Mirrleesean Taxation in a Ben-Porath Economy," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 219-248, April.
    22. Nicholas Lawson, 2014. "Taxing the Job Creators: Effcient Progressive Taxation with Wage Bargaining," Working Papers halshs-01059604, HAL.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • E6 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook
    • L5 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights

    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:bla:ecorec:v:82:y:2006:i:257:p:207-224. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esausea.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.