AN EMPLOYMENT EQUATION FOR AUSTRALIA: 1966-2001

We model the relationship between hours of work and employment and argue that unless actual hours are varying with a change in ‘standard hours’, actual hours should not appear in the long-run component of an equation for employment. If however standard hours are changing then it is desirable that this variable be incorporated into the employment equation. Our theoretical model yields an expression for the elasticity of employment with respect to standard hours which shows that the elasticity is related to the size of the premium for overtime. Using quarterly data for the period 1966:3 – 2001:3 we estimate a new employment equation for Australia incorporating standard hours of work. We find empirical support for our approach and we provide new estimates of the elasticity of employment with respect to the real wage and GDP. We also find a marked asymmetry in the response of employment to variations in real GDP and real wages in recession periods as against non-recession periods.Employment Determination, Demand for Labor, Australia

A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING CHANGES IN THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IN A FLOWS CONTEXT: AN EXAMINATION NET FLOWS IN THE AUSTRALIAN LABOUR MARKET

In this paper we develop a framework which is appropriate for the systematic investigation of the relationship between net (and gross) flows between different labour market states and movements in the unemployment rate. We use that framework to investigate the behaviour of net flows of persons between employment, unemployment and not in the labour force in Australia between 1979-2003 and the relationship of these flows to changes in the unemployment rate over that period. We find that: flows from unemployment to employment exceed flows from employment to unemployment and that this is the case even in recessions; flows from employment to not in the labour force exceed flows from not in the labour force to employment and that this is the case even in booms, and; flows from not in the labour force to unemployment exceed flows from unemployment to not in the labour force even in recessions. Another important finding is that the reason why the participation rate is negatively correlated with the unemployment rate is because net flows from employment to both unemployment and to not in the labour force are highly correlated. It cannot be explained by flows occurring between unemployment and not in the labour force.Worker Flows Business Cycle Unemployment Participation Rate

Foreword: Equality, the Elusive Value

In America there has been a special tension, indeed a tragic tension not resolved, between the ideals of equality of opportunity and individualism and the reality of black slavery and its aftermath

Article V: The Comatose Article of Our Living Constitution?

Capacity for steady--even startling-development and relative incapacity for formal change, are twin features of American constitutionalism often noticed but seldom analyzed conjointly. Even the most stalwart supporters of the status quo do not want an unamendable Constitution, but disagreement as to how change should be effected, and the scope of it, runs deep. Indeed, this is the central problem of Marbury v. Madison. That case was the effective innovator of judicial review, our real system for developmental constitutionalism. Interestingly, it also was one of the quite rare instances when a seemingly simple constitutional text was at issue (scope of Supreme Court original jurisdiction), one readily susceptible of formal amendment without raising larger issues of structure or policy for the rest of our public law system