Growth and recession in Asia: impacts on wages and employment in Australia and other high wage countries

The Asian boom of recent decades and the Asian bust since 1997 had opposite effects on overall economic activity but both may be associated with unemployment in Australia and Europe. This project quantifies the interaction among trade and labour policies adopted in Europe and the United States, following these Asian shocks, and their effects on wages and unemployment in Australia. It addresses the strength of the theoretical result that the high average wages sustained in flexible wage countries like the United States stem in part from the rise in unemployment in regions with regulated labour markets , including Australia and Europe.