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Is German Football like the German Economy?
This year saw an all German final in the European Champions League with Bayern Munich defeating Borussia Dortmund 2-1 at Wembly Stadium in London. In order to get to the final both teams beat Spanish counterparts – Real Madrid and Barcelona. What is fitting is that in economic terms German is the powerhouse of the European economy whilst in contrast Spain has suffered greatly from the euro crisis and austerity measures that have been imposed on it. If you look at post-war Germany you can see some correlation between the success of the national side and state of the economy.
The Economist looked at this and made the point that German has opened up its borders to not just traditional labour but also football players. Of the two squads on show at the Champions League Final at Wembley last month, 17 were from outside Germany.
Most visibly, Germany opened up. Just as immigrants flock to German jobs (more than 1m net arrivals in 2012), so players join German clubs. Between them Bayern and Dortmund have four Brazilians, three Poles, a Peruvian-Italian, a Serb, a Croat, a Swiss of Kosovar extraction, an Austrian of Filipino/Nigerian stock, a Ukrainian and two Australians—and so on. Of the German players, several have dual citizenship or a “migration background”. If the choice is between a German Europe or a European Germany, as the novelist Thomas Mann once put it, football points to the second.
EU unemployment levels on the rise
From the Wall Street Journal Graphics page. Unemployment in the EU hits record highs – joblessness in the 17-nation currency area rose to 12.2 percent in April. Reuters stated that the greatest menace to the unity of the euro zone is now social breakdown from the crisis, rather than market-driven factors. What is of significant concern is that 5.6m young are without employment although it is getting desperate for Spain and Greece.
US Long-Term Unemployed and over 55.
Despite a improvement in unemployment figures in the US – 8.1% – 7.5% for the year to April 2013 – there still remains nearly two million Americans 55 and older who are still out of work. Paul Solman of PBS explores why older workers face joblessness and considerable financial strain.
New Zealand Economy Report Card
The BNZ publish a report entitled “NZ at a Glance” which summarises the current state of the NZ economy. Here are some of the main points:
GDP – Construction is the main driver of growth over the next couple of years – mainly residential. Net exports is likely to take a hit as import penetration starts to build with as the economy recovers. GDP is forecast to increase to 3.6% in 2014 from 2.9% in 2013.
Unemployment – the current rate is 6.2% and the labour market is tightening with the increase in economic activity. Forecast to fall to 5.2% by March 2015. Tighter labour market will mean higher wage growth but also because of higher inflationary expectations as the economy recovers.
Inflation - quite subdued and the annual rate has been 1% or less over the last four quarters. A strong NZD, weakening commodity prices and low inflation globally are conspiring to offset domestic-demand driven price increases. Low inflation also becomes self-fulfilling to the extent that it moderates inflation expectations and price-setting behaviour elsewhere.
Current Account - The current account deficit appears to be stabilising in a 4.0% to 5.0% of GDP range. This is thanks largely to a resurgence in the commodity prices of the goods that New Zealand exports. This is a welcome development to the extent that it may appease nervous rating agencies for a year or so.
Overall
The New Zealand economic expansion is gaining in momentum. The rebuild of Christchurch is now building up a head of steam and this is supporting increasingly widespread confidence. Very low interest rates and a booming housing market are playing their part too. Eventually this will necessitate a response from the central bank but while annual inflation remains below 1.0% (and set to stay there for a while) it suggests that any such response might be some time in coming. Meanwhile, the NZD remains supported by money printing elsewhere and the relative strength of the economy here.
Austerity = negative multiplier effect
In the NYT it was stated that Moody’s are predicting that a tighter fiscal policy – cuts in government spending and increased taxation – will slow economic growth for 2013 by about 1.2 percentage points and prevent the unemployment rate from falling to 6.1 percent by the end of the year. Where is the effect of QE on these figures?
US infrastructure could create those jobs
Some alarming figures have been banded about with regard to America’s infrastructure. It is estimated that over 700,000 bridges are rated as structurally deficient. In 2009 Americans lost approximately $78 billion to traffic delays – inefficient use of time and petrol costs. Also crashes which to a large extent have been caused by road conditions, cost a further $230 billion.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers the US needs to spend $2.2 trillion bring their infrastructure up to standard. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2011 that for every dollar the federal government spent on infrastructure the multiplier effect was up to 2.5. Other indicators state that every $1 billion spent on infrastructure creates 18,000 jobs, almost 30% more than if the same amount were used to cut personal income taxes. – The Economist
Positive Externalities from infrastructure.
Investment in infrastructure has a lot of positive externalities – faster traveling time for consumers and companies, spending less time on maintenance. Research has shown that the completion of a road led to an increase in economic activity between 3 and 8 times bigger than it initial outlay with eight years after its completion. But what must be considered is that now is the best time to invest in infrastructure as it is very cheap – much cheaper than it will be when the economy is going through a boom period.
Youth Unemployment in Europe
Here is a very good video graphic from The Economist. It looks at youth unemployment rates in the main economies of Europe and discusses the reasons why some countries have had much higher rates. Notice German’s low rate which was falling during the GFC which was mainly due to labour reforms which allowed small businesses to fire employees more easily and liberalised work for part-time and temporary work.
Spain tries the German method to reduce unemployment
If you look at the labour market in Spain you would think that it resembles the German economy 10 years ago when Gerhard Schroder was its leader. Schroder was responsible for labour reforms that ignited the German economy into one of the strongest in Europe.
Spain is relaxing labour laws and cutting public spending and there are some positive signs here in that labour unit costs are falling as result of greater productivity. However German’s vocational education sector was a significant factor in its improved performance as the education and training system is more job orientated. Furthermore, with austerity measures in place and more to follow – pressure from the EU to introduce yet another sales-tax rise – Spain will find it hard to generate any sort of growth. But if it does grow will it generate any reduction in unemployment? Because of labour reforms some economists now believe that only 1.5% growth is required to bring about net job creation rather than 2.5% as previous.
Increase in minimum wage = Positive outcomes for economy?
Recently the minimum wage in New Zealand increased from $13.50 to $13.75 per hour. What are the arguments for an increase in this and what affect does it have?
An argument for the minimum wage is the fact that sometimes in labour markets there isn’t enough competition between employers and a monopsony situation occurs – see graph below. Here the minimum wage would protect the employee. However, is raising the minimum wage based more on reducing inequality as people are still struggling with the purchasing power of their incomes. In the US President Obama spoke in his State of the Union address about increasing the minimum wage from US$7.25 to US$9 – seems to be well targeted with regard to its impact. But ultimately how many people are affected by the increase in the minimum wage?
With the increase in minimum wage there is the belief that employers will lay-off workers. Evidence suggests the following:
1. Employment doesn’t fall much as the increase in wages lowers labour turnover, which raises productivity and the demand for labour.
2. The increase in costs for the employer will be passed onto the consumer in higher prices for goods and services
There is also the argument that wage increases will boost aggregate demand and therefore growth and employment. But in the USA this is estimated to increase consumer purchases by approximately US$15bn and when you think that the US economy is worth US$15 trillion is quite small in the scheme of things.
Economist Christina Romer stated in The New York Times that a more generous earned-income tax credit would provide more support for the working poor and would be more pro business at the same time.
Monopsony Labour Market
A monopsony occurs in the labour market when there is a single or dominant buyer of labour. The buyer therefore is able to determine the price at which is paid for services. Unlike other examples we have looked at, in this situation we are now dealing with an imperfect rather than a perfectly competitive market. The monopsonist will hire workers where:
Marginal Cost of labour (MCL) = Marginal Revenue product of labour (MRPL)
In order to entice workers to supply this amount of labour, the firm need pay only the wage Wq. (Remember that ACL is the supply of labour). You can see, therefore, that a profit-maximising monopsonist will use less labour, and pay a lower wage, than a firm operating under perfect competition.
In this situation the power of the employer in the labour market is of overriding importance and the employer can set a low wage because of this buying power.
Structural unemployment – the big mismatch
From reading the McKinsey report on the mismatch between the skills of the unemployed and the jobs available – Structural Unemployment – here is an interesting graph which I have put together from their data. The lack of skills is a common reason for entry-level vacancies in the nine economies below. It seems that employers and those in education don’t communicate much as to the future requirements of labour.
Why is New Zealand’s labour market still weak?
Just covering the labour market with my A2 class and New Zealand at present gives some good examples of labour market imperfections. You would think with the commencement of the major rebuild in Christchurch would have positive effects on the New Zealand labour market. Economists had forecast unemployment to drop below 6% at the end of 2012 however the December quarter had the rate at 6.9%. The Westpac Economic Overview came up with some reasons as to why employers have been reluctant to take on more labour.
1. Employers are increasing the hours that labour is working rather than taking more on. After the GFC a lot of employers kept labour but reduced their working hours so when the economy starts to grow there is a tendency for them to increase the working hours rather than employing new staff.
2. There has a lack of geographical mobility as workers have been reluctant to move away from areas of New Zealand that have weak growth to those that require more labour – eg. Canterbury. Since late 2010 job vacancies in Christchurch have increased dramatically and employers have found it increasingly difficult to find labour = wages have risen faster in Canterbury than most of New Zealand. The RBNZ reported that this two-speed labour market is suffering from the lowest matching efficiency – the speed with which job vacancies and additions to the labour force translate into jobs. This implies higher wages and higher unemployment than normal.
3. The high NZ$ make imported capital cheaper and there has been an increase in a firms’ intentions to invest in plant and equipment (form overseas) but a reluctance to spend money on new buildings or labour.
Pros and Cons of moving production overseas
By the 1980’s the production of many manufactured goods started to gravitate from developed countries to those of developing status. The main driver for manufactured firms has been the lost-cost labour and as the market environment has became more and more competitive new factories opened up in Mexico, China, Thailand and many eastern European countries. As reported in The Economist, Jack Welch the CEO of General Electric said that ‘factories should be built on barges so they could be floated around the world to take advantage of economies of scale and exchange rate fluctuations.’
Perceived benefits of overseas production
* workers in low-cost countries had jobs and rising living standards
* local workers can leave more menial jobs to overseas workers – eg Polish builders in London – Russian service sector workers in Ireland.
Perceived costs of overseas production
* job losses in developed countries especially for manual workers. Economist Alan Binder estimated that 40 million American jobs could go to the emerging economies.
* it has become a major concern of workers in developed countries especially with the growth of the Internet. A significant amount of IT service jobs can easily be done in countries like India, Philipines etc.
Change of thought after GFC
Since the start of the GFC in 2007 unemployment has soared in a lot of Western countries reaching well over 20% in some countries. This has made the general public more sensitive to jobs going overseas and ultimately has led companies thinking twice about departing their shores. Politicians have also showed discontent at companies looking to relocate overseas although the staff of German company Siemens agreed to increase the working week from 35-40 hours for no extra pay after the company had threatened to shift the production of mobile phones to Hungary.
Bad figures for Brazil
Recent growth and inflation figures spell bad news for the Brazilian economy. You would normally associate inflation as a consequence of higher growth rates but this looks like potential stagflation – stagnant growth and inflation. Although it is not as threatening as the stagflation era of the 1970’s, one wonders how the economy will get on hosting the World Cup and the Olympics games. You would have thought with these forthcoming events that economic growth would be generated with the huge infrastructure development required.
Confusing signals from New Zealand employment data
You may have heard Stephen Topliss of the BNZ in the media this morning talking about the inconsistent employment data that was recently published. In 2012 30,00 people lost their jobs and there was drop in the number of participants in the labour force by 48,000 as people gave up looking for work – see diagram below for Composition of Labour Force. There are some conflicting pieces of data:
1. The unemployment rate fell from 7.3% to 6.9% over the last quarter but this most probably is due to the fact that the participation rate has fallen.
2. The number of people employed fell by 1.4% for 2012 but the Quarterly Employment Survey suggests that employment grew by around 1.5% over the last year.
3. Business intentions and actions are inconsistent – survey indicate that they expect to hire more labour but ultimately they don’t
4. In surveys consumer confidence is high with the backdrop of so many losing their jobs
5. Housing market usually reflects the state of the labour market – today employment market poor
It begs the question how accurate is the employment data. Lies, damn lies and statistics.
Composition of Labour Force in New Zealand January 2012
World Economy: Car driven by a drunk
David A. Rosenberg an economist with Clusken Sheff in Canada, has likened the world economy to that of a car being driven by a drunk – that is the car is moving back and across the centre line just missing the ditches on the side of the road. Currently he sees the car in the middle of the road although he questions as to whether this is due to the driver becoming more sober or steering towards the ditch on the other side.
Recently the US stock market (Dow Jones Industrial Average) went above 14000 for the first time in more than five years for the following reasons:
1. Better job figures – employers added 157,000 jobs in January and hired more workers in 2012 than had previously been thought. See chart below.
2. Corporate earnings have been stronger than expected,
3. US Federal Reserve has indicated that it will keep interest rates at near zero levels as well as continuing their policy of monthly $85 billion purchases of bonds and mortgage-backed securities, which injected $3 trillion into the banking system last week.
This third point is particularly important. In the New York Times, Rosenbery stated that he didn’t see the US economy in a recession as yet but could quickly go in that direction. “Anemic growth is my baseline scenario.” Also how long can the US Fed keep propping up equity markets and pumping money into the system? The conditions in Europe are not much better – unemployment rose to record levels in December last year and currently stands at 26.8% in Greece and 26.1% in Spain. Add to that the austerity measures which have impacted greatly on overall aggregate demand and the consumer slowdown in Germany, the eurozone area has its problems. So the car might be in the middle of the road right now but it might not take too much for it to deviate from a safe path.
Monopsony power in the labour market and the minimum wage
In 1894 New Zealand made history by being the first developed nation to introduce a minimum wage. The Economist had an article on minimum wages and the fact that they might in fact be good for an economy. Most economists believe that a higher minimum wages = the artificial increase in labour costs and therefore lower demand for labour.
Some economist have suggested that minimum wages can increase employment and obviously pay. However if employees have monopsony power as buyers of labour and are able to influence wages they can keep the wages lower below its competitive rate – see graph below.
Two economists (David Carr & Kruegger) found out in New Jersey that when the minimum wage was raised employment in fast-food restaurants actually increased. The Economist suggests that if firms are not reducing the number of their employees with higher minimum wages they must be employing a number of strategies such as raising prices of their goods/services or saving money from reduced revenue. The IMF state that a moderate minimum wage (30-40% of the median wage – see graph) doesn’t have a significant negative effect on employment numbers and may do some good.
Monopsony in the Labour Market
A monopsony occurs in the labour market when there is a single or dominant buyer of labour. The buyer therefore is able to determine the price at which is paid for services. Unlike other examples we have looked at, in this situation we are now dealing with an imperfect rather than a perfectly competitive market. The monopsonist will hire workers where:
Marginal Cost of labour (MCL) = Marginal Revenue product of labour (MRPL)
From the perspective of the monopsonist firm facing the supply curve directly, if at any point it wants to hire more labour, it has to offer a higher wage to encourage more workers to join the market – after all, this is what the ACL curve tells it. However, the firm would then have to pay that higher wage to all its workers so the marginal cost of hiring the extra worker is not just the wage paid to that worker, but the increased wage paid to all workers as well. So the marginal cost of labour curve (MCL) can be added to the diagram.
If the monopsonist firm wants to maximise profit, it will hire labour up to the point where the marginal cost of labour is equal to the marginal revenue product of labour. Therefore it will use labour up to level of Eq which is where MCL=MRPL. In order to entice workers to supply this amount of labour, the firm need pay only the wage Wq. (Remember that ACL is the supply of labour). You can see, therefore, that a profit-maximising monopsonist will use less labour, and pay a lower wage, than a firm operating under perfect competition.
In this situation the power of the employer in the labour market is of overriding importance and the employer can set a low wage because of this buying power.
Iceland starts to thaw after GFC
Over the last 4 years the Icelandic economy has gone from financial disintegration to an emerging recovery and in doing so has taken a different policy stance than other economies faced with similar economic conditions.
How have they recovered?
1. The government guaranteed the deposits of Icelandic citizens in the banks but this did not apply to foreign investors. The banks that held foreign assets are currently being broken down and assets are being sold to pay off creditors.
2. The weak Krona has been the catalyst to recovery and exports in fish, aluminum, and tourism are up by over 10% from 2010.
3. The IMF and other Nordic countries were forthcoming with loans in order to try and stabilise the already volatile economy.
The table shows the problems that faced the Icelandic economy in 2009. With unemployment on the rise and inflation at 18.6% there was not only stagflation but the government’s debt to GDP ratio has continued to climb as officials protect the social safety net.
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The above is a brief extract from an article published in this month’s econoMAX – click below to subscribe to econoMAX the online magazine of Tutor2u. Each month there are 8 articles of around 600 words on current economic issues.
Economic Insecurity and Obesity
There is no doubt that the social costs (private cost + external cost) associated with food consumption have been well documented. Rising obesity rates especially in those affluent developed nations have caused authorities to consider the reasons behind this issue. It transpires that economic insecurity plays a significant role in explaining trends in obesity for many affluent countries.
What is Economic Insecurity?
In July 2010 the Economic Security Index (ESI) was developed by Yale Professor Jacob Hacker. It is designed to provide a meaningful, succinct measure of Americans economic security. The three key determinants of economic security it focuses on are:
1 Large losses in household income
2 Large spikes in house-hold medical spending
3 The adequacy of household financial wealth to buffer these losses and spikes.
Efficiency Obesity trade-off
Although last twenty years has seen countries move to a more market based economic system but since the global financial crisis (GFC) there has been a U turn in some countries. Research has shown that the population of those countries that have adopted a more free market approach to running their economies, have experienced personal economic insecurity (unemployment etc.) which has given rise to weight gain. The table below shows that the countries through to be free market have higher obesity rates than those that are more planned in nature. Countries with free market policies have 4% higher obesity rates on average.
Source: T. Smith (2012), Does economic liberalisation cause obesity? EcoNZ@Otago – Issue 29 – September 2012
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The above is a brief extract from an article published in this month’s econoMAX – click below to subscribe to econoMAX the online magazine of Tutor2u. Each month there are 8 articles of around 600 words on current economic issues.
Macro Conflicts in New Zealand
Part of the Cambridge A2 syllabus studies Macro Economic conflicts of Policy Objectives. Here I am looking at GDP, Unemployment, and Inflation (improving Trade figures is another objective also). The objectives are:
* Stable low inflation with prices rising within the target range of 1% – 3% per year
* Sustainable growth – as measured by the rate of growth of real gross domestic product
* Low unemployment – the government wants to achieve full-employment
New Zealand Growth, Jobs and Prices — 3 Key Macro Objectives Inflation, jobs and growth
1. Inflation and unemployment:
From the graph above you can see that low levels of unemployment have created higher prices – demand-pull inflation. Also note that as unemployment has increased there is a short-term trade-off between unemployment and inflation. Notice the increase in inflation in 2010-2011 as this is when the rate of GST was increased from 12.5% to 15%. Also today we have falling inflation (0.8% below the 1-3% band set by the RBNZ) and unemployment in on the rise – 7.3%
2. Economic growth and inflation
With increasing growth levels prices started to increase in 2007 going above the 3% threshold in 2008. This suggests that there were capacity issues in the economy and the aggregate supply curve was becoming very inelastic. In subsequent years the level of growth has dropped and with it the inflation rate.
3. Economic Growth and Unemployment
Usually you find that with increasing levels of GDP growth unemployment figures tend to gravitate downward. This was apparent between 2006-2008 – GDP was positive and unemployment did fall to approximately 3.6%. However from 2009 onwards you can see that growth has been positive but unemployment has also started to rise.
Unemployment worries for New Zealand economy
Figures out today show that the unemployment rate increased by 0.5% from the previous quarter to 7.3% – see ASB Bank graph.. This was a concern considering the market expectation was a reduction of 0.1% to 6.7%. The main fall was in Auckland where employment fell by 2% and this should mean that new Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler will hold off on any increase until late next year. A reduction in the OCR is unlikely unless there is further deterioration on overseas markets.
Remember the types of unemployment
Frictional – The unemployment that inevitably results from the process of job-seeking. It will exist under conditions of generally so-called full-employment conditions (see employment, full), but it is not precisely clear what proportion of total unemployment can be called frictional.
Structural - Unemployment arising from changes in demand or technology which lead to an oversupply of labour with particular skills or in particular locations. Structural unemployment does not result from an overall deficiency of demand and therefore cannot be cured by reflation, but only by retraining or relocation of the affected work-force, some of which may find work at low wages in unskilled occupations.
Cyclical – Demand-deficient unemployment occurs when there is not enough demand to employ all those who want to work. It is a type that Keynesian economists focus on particularly, as they believe it happens when there is a disequilibrium in the economy.
Seasonal - Some workers, such as construction workers or workers in the tourist industry, tend to work on a seasonal basis. Seasonal unemployment tends to rise in winter when some these workers will be laid off, whilst unemploymnet falls is summer when they are taken on again.
