Mahmood A. Zaidi

Global Skill Shortages

As the world entered the twenty-first century, global skill shortages in many occupations were evident throughout the world. While these were mitigated by a global recession, there is no generally agreed upon method for measuring these shortages. This book discusses various theories for measurement. Using data collected from 19 developed countries in North and Latin America, Europe, and the Pacific region, the authors explore various aspects of skilled labor shortages, develop a methodology of measuring shortages by occupation, and provide estimates of the likelihood of the occurrence of such shortages. They develop labor market indicators which measure the degree of shortage or surplus in different occupations.

Some reflections on theories of unemployment in the North American context

Abstract This paper is an attempt to present a summary and perspective on some recent developments in the macroeconomic theories of unemployment. Sections II and III deal respectively with the existing explanations of long term unemployment and the fluctuations in the short term unemployment. Section IV examines how these theories help us in unraveling the United States-Canada unemployment rate divergence puzzle. Some directions for future research are suggested in Section V.

The Relation Between Profits and the Rate of Change of Money Wages in Australia

Wage determination has been the subject of an immense amount of study and controversy in recent years in Australia. In most of the Australian wage equations, either the profit variable has been omitted or specifically rejected. This study tests the hypothesis that the rate of change of money wages may be influenced by the profit variable. Our results show that profit is an important explanatory variable in the explanation of money wage change in Australia.