An Economic Analysis of Industrial Disputation in Australia

An econofplc analysis c" inciustria"! d i spu fa t i c " 1n Aust ra l ia Australia may present a special case in the analysis of strikes because, for most of the Twentieth Century, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission has acted as an industrial "umpire " charged with keeping the industrial peace. We begin with a review of major contributions to the theory of strikes, and re-estimations and evaluations of the time-series models of previous Australian researchers. We then develop theoretical models of strikes and non-strike industrial action, stemming from Marshall's (1920) contribution to the theory of wages. If higher real wages lead to lower levels of employment, union demands are likely to be greater, and industrial action more frequent, when the duration of unemployment of retrenched workers is shorter. Important determinants of th