Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis article considers whether capital is a significant constraint on employment in Australia. We calculate the level of capital‐constrained employment for seven sectors of the Australian economy. The calculations suggest that the manufacturing; transport, storage and communication; and recreation, personal and other services sectors have sufficient capital installed to increase employment. In two other sectors, mining and wholesale and retail trade, the potential for increases in employment through increased capital utilisation may be constrained by surplus labour (as of June 1993). While some sectors are capital constrained at the moment, we find that the investment requirements to increase employment in these sectors are not onerous. We also project investment requirements in each of the sectors for employment growth over the next five years. These projections suggest that a jump in investment followed by relatively modest growth is required to sustain growth in employment.

AbstractOne of the most important features of the Australian economy in the past two decades has been the structural deterioration of labour market performance, reflected in both an increase in the average rate of unemployment and an outward shift in the Beveridge Curve, which depicts the relationship between unemployment and vacancies. This article attempts to uncover some of the causes for this structural deterioration, in terms of the factors affecting the UVrelationship.We find that the Beveridge Curve shifted out around 1974, consistent with an increase in the equilibrium rate of unemployment which is generally agreed to have occurred around that time. Using gross labour market flow data, we also investigate the determinants of the equilibrium Beveridge Curve in the 1980s. We find that the Beveridge Curve shifted further outwards in the 1980s. The most important determinant of this shift was the decline in the search effectiveness of the unemployed, reflected in the increasing incidence of long‐term unemployment. Partially offsetting this influence during this time were the declining labour force participation of men, and the very large increases in female employment.

Major changes to the Australian financial system in the 1980s may possibly have influenced the effects of monetary policy on economic activity. Using vector autoregressive econometric techniques we find that the deregulation of the financial system has made very little difference to the reduced form relationships among interest rates, employment growth, inflation and the growth rate of real credit. We find that interest rates are an important determinant of the business cycle, with credit being much less significant. We also find that monetary policy reacts to unexpected movements in real variables but does not react to surprises in the inflation rate.

This study examines the long‐run and short‐run behaviour of public hospital average costs in two Australian States: Victoria and Queensland. Using adjusted weighted inlier‐equivalent separations as a measure of hospital output, and floor area as a measure of capacity, the study finds a hump‐ or '∩'‐shaped long‐run average cost curve at the 5 per cent significance level in both data sets. The study also finds a saucer‐ or '∪'‐shaped relationship between capacity utilisation and short‐run average cost at the 5 per cent level.