Movements in the prices of primary products and manufactured goods are analysed using a model that introduces differences in wage and price determination between primary production and manufacturing. Wages and prices in primary production are treated as competitively determined, while prices and...

We consider the impact of primary commodity prices and wages on U.S. inflation in the context of markup pricing. We estimate separate equations for world commodity prices, wage rates, and domestic finished goods prices using annual data for 1900 to 2001. We find complete pass-through of...

Movements in the terms of trade between primary producers and manufacturers are analyzed using a model that introduces the influence of relative wage movements in the primary and manufacturing sectors as well as the influence of mark-up pricing in manufacturing. The model is estimated using data...

Dramatic changes in the relative prices of goods in international trade have accompanied, and indeed preceded, the recent global crisis. The causes and effects of the relative price changes are analysed by applying the analysis of business cycles developed by Joseph Schumpeter. Schumpeter’s...

More than two centuries ago in his Essay on the Principle of Population, Thomas Malthus famously issued his dire prediction that mankind was doomed to survival at a subsistence level. His concept of population growth expanding to absorb the available food supply has been roundly contradicted by...