Trade Reforms and Manufacturing Performance: Australia 1989-97

Kankesu Jay Jayanthakumaran

No WP99-13, Economics Working Papers from School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia

Abstract: Advocates of the competitive market paradigm strongly believe that "getting the price right" would improve manufacturing performance. Australia experienced extensive trade reforms in the late 1980s and 1990s which were expected to promote a competitive manufacturing sector. This paper examines whether these trade reforms have had a positive impact on the growth performance of the manufacturing sector. Selected growth performance variables - labour productivity, price-cost margins and exports - were regressed on change in protection variables. The results of the study are consistent with the hypothesis that trade reforms have increased the growth performance of the manufacturing sector.

Keywords: trade reforms; manufacturing performance; Australia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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