Recent investigations into cross-country convergence follow Mankiw, Romer, and Weil (1992) in using a log-linear approximation to the Swan-Solow growth model to specify regressions. These studies tend to assume a common and exogenous technology. In contrast, the technology catch-up literature...

This paper examines theory and evidence from recent studies into the contributions to economic growth of expenditure on education and on research and development. Investment in human capital has fundamentally different economic attributes to physical investment - exhibiting complementarity,...

Models of simultaneous bargaining games are used to analyze the wage outcomes associated with various systems of industrial relations, including bargaining by craft, enterprise, industry, or the whole economy. Union structure is a key determinant with highest wage pressure occurring when unions...

In a recent contribution to this journal, Lewis and MacDonald (2002) argue that Australian literature on aggregate demand for labour is permeated with misunderstandings and, as a result, existing empirical work has been misinterpreted. The objective of the present note is to argue that the...

The apparent convergence of OECD income levels since 1950 is subjected to rigorous testing that suggests that there has occurred a systematic process of catching up in levels of total factor productivity. An econometric model of relative economic growth exhibits parameter stability over three...

Widely used 'purchasing power parity' comparisons of per capital GDP are not true quantity indexes and are subject to systematic substitution bias. This bias may distort measurement of convergence and divergence. Extending Hal R. Varian's nonparametric construction of a true index gives the set...

Baran and Sweezy (1968, p85) argue that "the working class as a whole is (not) in a position to encroach on surplus ... under monopoly capitalism employers can and do pass on higher labour costs in the form of higher prices". In Section 2 I examine this claim that employers' power in product...