More slant than substance in jobs reform ideology

If you don't like the sound of John Howard's industrial relations "reforms", don't be intimidated by all the politicians, business people and economists assuring you they'll lead to "more jobs, higher wages and a stronger economy".

Why not? Because the empirical evidence in support of such claims is a lot weaker than the urgers ever let on.

There's a lot of fashion in economics. At present, it's the height of fashion to believe that deregulating the labour market is the key to improving the economy's performance.

Just achieve a more "flexible" labour market and you'll get lower unemployment, higher productivity, faster economic growth and improved material living standards.

How do you make the labour market more flexible? Weaken unions, lower minimum wages, lessen employment protection laws and discourage collective bargaining.

These assertions are made unceasingly not just by almost all our local econocrats but also by the international econocrats of the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

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