A chapter of Globalisation and Welfare State
Keywords: Labour Studies;
Dr Richard Smith, deputy editor of the British Medical Journal, described unemployment as a `medical problem’. (1) While unemployment has been treated as an economic problem with political overtones, Smith’s description reflects a growing recognition of unemployment’s impact on the health and welfare of individuals and their social groups.
A chapter of Globalisation and Welfare State
Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Labour Studies;
For the first two decades after the Second World War the performance of the New Zealand economy seemed miraculous. Growth of real GDP exceeded 4 percent a year, consumer inflation was less that the average for other rich countries, there were strains in the balance of payments but no major crisis, (1) and unemployment was hardly reported at all (2)
Keywords: Distributional Economics; Globalisation & Trade; Labour Studies; Regulation & Taxation; Social Policy;
In 1997 I commenced writing a book Globalization and a Welfare State. I finished about three fifths of the first draft and stopped. This was partly because other matters were using my energies, but also because I felt that the book was too technical and would not find a commercial market in New Zealand. I am putting the book on the website for those people who might be interested in some aspects of its contents.
Symposium on New Zealand’s Employment Contracts Act 1991, Californian Western International Journal Volume 28, No 1, Fall 1997, p.209-220.
Keywords: Labour Studies;
Introduction
There have been various claims about the economic impact of the New Zealand Employment Contracts Act, 1991 (ECA). For instance in Free to Work: The Liberalisation of New Zealand’s Labour Market, Australian economist Wolfgang Kasper claims that the resulting industrial relations had economic benefits. He concludes “the Employment Contracts Act has substantially enhanced the productivity of labour and capital, output, and employment growth because it has been an essential ingredient in the transformation of New Zealand’s institutional order to greater flexibility and competitiveness”.1
Appendix to Chapter 7 of The Commercialisation of New Zealand
Keywords: Labour Studies;
The union movement will think of itself as largely marginalized by and marginally involved in the commercialization shift. This appendix explores another story: one which advocates of the reforms should be keen to point out. All institutions find it very difficult to reform themselves. Genuine institutional reform involves some external pressure. This is the case study of the union experience, but there are numerous others including the corporatization of state owned enterprises (Chapter 1).
Abstract Economic historian Brendan Thompson died earlier this year. His life’s scholarship involved calculating a series oft he New Zealand workforce. The paper reports on this work, and provides some of the aggregate data which Brendan had produced. Brendan James George Thompson, senior lecture in eco-nomic history at the University of Waikato, died in January…
Continue reading this entry »
Everyone Assumed That Productivity Growth Would Increase with the Employments Contracts Act. But Check the Data: No Significant Change.
Listener: 27 July, 1996.
Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Labour Studies;
The non-ideological economist would have made three confident predictions about the effects of the Employment Contracts Act (ECA) introduced in May 1991. First, it would weaken the unions. True. Second, it would depress wages of low pay workers (because of the mass of unemployed with similar skills). True. Third, it would generate productivity increases (at least in the short term). False.
This was a Draft Chapter for Report on the Family and Societal Change Programme project which was never published. (March 1996)
Keywords: Globalisation & International Trade; Labour Studies; Social Policy;
Introduction
The internal activities of and relationships within a firm (or other economic agency such as a government department), are heavily influenced by the external pressures on the firm. As the case studies in the next four chapters will show the three firms and one government department have experienced major changes inside them, especially in terms of the industrial relations and its impact on the family life of workers. To understand the pressures for these internal changes we need to provide a context of the changes in the firm’s external environment.
Can Market Forces Principles Be Applied to the Labour Markets?
Listener: 27 May, 1995
Keywords: Labour Studies;
Labour Employment Work in New Zealand, 1994, p.206-213.
Keywords: Labour Studies; Maori;
Executive Summary
* The Maori is in an inferior position in the labour force compared to the non-Maori.
* The Maori are more likely to be Not-in-the-Labour Force and more likely to be unemployed.
* When these two effects are combined together the Maori unemployment rate is not the 2.7 times the non-Maori rate that the official definitions showed in 1991, but 3.9 for males and 4.5 times for females.
* The analysis confirms that when the Maori is employed, they are more likely to be in the secondary part of the labour market, that is with low quality jobs in terms of renumeration, working conditions, career opportunities, and job security.
* Crucial for understanding the labour market is the flux between the unemployed, those not-in-the-labour market, and those in secondary employment. This churning means there is a dynamic process going on.
* Because of the higher incidence of not-in-the-labour force, and in secondary employment it is unwise to focus on Maori unemployment. At issue is the high proportion of the Maori in the secondary labour market in comparison with the non-Maori. Some policies merely shift people between the different parts of the secondary labour market.
* Econometric work suggests that only one third of the difference between Maori and non-Maori employment participation can be explained by the personal characteristics measured in the population census.
* The report acknowledges there may be other personal characteristics not measured, which also have an influence.
* However it seems likely that the most important determinants of the differences are social variables, summarized in the concept of “maoriness”. A possible practical example is that it is known that the most important source of job recruitment involves family and friends. The Maori is handicapped in doing this because of their lower employment rates, but also possibly because the Maori network is not as geared as the non-Maori family to carry out this task.
This is a draft report prepared in July 1994. The layout may have been corrupted; apologies.) Keywords: Labour Studies; Maori; PROLOGUE This report is based upon the largest data base in New Zealand, the quinquennial population census. Te Puni Kokori requested from the Department of Statistics New Zealand a set of tabulations…
Continue reading this entry »
Address to the 1994 National Biennial Conference of the New Zealand Engineering Union, 13-15 May, Christchurch. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Labour Studies; Today I want to discuss economic growth strategies, by looking at the vision which underpins the Employment Contracts Act (ECA), and the alternative. One of the central tenants of a good…
Continue reading this entry »
Listener 25 February, 1991
Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Labour Studies; Macroeconomics & Money; Social Policy;
A popular folk song on US campuses in the late 1960s was Pete Seeger’s “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy”. It described how one night an army platoon attempted to ford a swamp-river. The commander said he knew where he was going. It was just a matter of pushing on. Some of his troops were less certain, but were exhorted with such phrases as “don’t be a nervous nellie” and just show a little determination”.
This is an introduction to a symposium on Unemployment in New Zealand. “New Zealand Journal of Industrial relations”, Vol 7, No @, August 1982, p.101-106.* Keywords: Labour Studies; Research on unemployment in New Zealand is not as widespread as in most affluent economies, no doubt partly reflecting that for the post-war period up…
Continue reading this entry »