Changing Methods for the Allocation of Scarce Resources to Competing Ends: A Possible Explanation for the Wages Squeeze and Responses to It

Adam Fforde

Economic Papers, 2018, vol. 37, issue 3, 287-298

Abstract: The paper discusses the economic analysis of modern rich economies. It argues that standard economic theory acknowledges that it does not apply if there is own‐consumption and/or joint production and suggests that successful economic reforms of the 1980s have used markets to drive down costs in sectors where standard economic theory applies. This process has resulted in a situation where rich country economies are increasingly oriented to sectors – predominantly services – where markets work less well, namely those with extensive own‐consumption and joint production, where theory says that factor rewards and other prices cannot be determined by production and consumption conditions. Arguing that this can explain the “wages squeeze,” the paper concludes that other economic mechanisms should and have arisen to secure better welfare gains, thus explaining the recent shift in policy priorities of the ACTU.

Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1759-3441.12226

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:econpa:v:37:y:2018:i:3:p:287-298

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0812-0439

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Papers is currently edited by Professor Guay Lim

More articles in Economic Papers from The Economic Society of Australia Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().