Richard Sappey

Do the Determinants of Employability and Earnings Returns Produce Similar Outcomes in Metropolitan and Regional Labour Markets? The Case of New South Wales, Australia

Mallik G., Basu P. K., Hicks J. and Sappey R. Do the determinants of employability and earnings returns produce similar outcomes in metropolitan and regional labour markets? The case of New South Wales, Australia, Regional Studies. This paper analyses and compares the determinants of employability and earnings return outcomes in two diversified labour markets in Australia. Using advanced econometric techniques to analyse Confidentialised Unit Record Files (CURF) data from the 2006 Census, the paper identifies educational qualifications, broad occupational group, immigration status and age as the major determinants. In general, the metropolitan Sydney market places a greater value on higher education qualifications than do labour markets in the regions; immigrants, particularly from non-English speaking countries, are more likely to be disadvantaged in Sydney; and ageing provides a mixed impact in regional areas where on average older people work longer, but at lower wages.

Regional diversity in growth performance in China

At the national level, China’s amazing growth has been driven by increases in labour productivity. Initially, this was explained by increases in the capital/labour ratio, but, more recently, increases in total factor productivity (apparently as a result of increased spending on education) have become a more important part of the explanation. This paper examines the growth experience at the provincial level and finds it to have been very uneven with the East generally growing earlier than the West. Notwithstanding this, the data suggests that growth in all provinces tends to pass through the same stages. Initially, labour productivity increases because of the growth in capital and, later in the process, growth is maintained because of improvements in TFP emanating from improvements in education. We identify that an appropriate policy measure to assist in achieving balanced growth across the provinces is to continue to increase educational expenditures in the lagging provinces.