[Curious about the title of the piece? Scroll to the bottom for an explanation or, even better, read all the way through!] So that was a heavy week. I had thought that if there was one institution we can rely on for reason in this time of uncertainty, it would be the boffins at the RBA. Surely we could count on them to deliver the goods - “the goods” being that sweet-as general equilibrium thinking that us immigration economists yearn for (I’ll come back to this). Sadly we were mistaken. For those not in the know (read: have a life) the RBA Governor Phil Lowe made a speech to the Queensland Economics Society, where he said, among mostly sensible things, that immigration had lowered aggregate wages in the economy. This obviously sent quite a few of us for a spin. Immigration/labour economists were a bit puzzled. Had the RBA suddenly lost access to its journal articles catalogue? Maybe the internet cut out for a day.
Hai hai R(ab)BA
Hai hai R(ab)BA
Hai hai R(ab)BA
[Curious about the title of the piece? Scroll to the bottom for an explanation or, even better, read all the way through!] So that was a heavy week. I had thought that if there was one institution we can rely on for reason in this time of uncertainty, it would be the boffins at the RBA. Surely we could count on them to deliver the goods - “the goods” being that sweet-as general equilibrium thinking that us immigration economists yearn for (I’ll come back to this). Sadly we were mistaken. For those not in the know (read: have a life) the RBA Governor Phil Lowe made a speech to the Queensland Economics Society, where he said, among mostly sensible things, that immigration had lowered aggregate wages in the economy. This obviously sent quite a few of us for a spin. Immigration/labour economists were a bit puzzled. Had the RBA suddenly lost access to its journal articles catalogue? Maybe the internet cut out for a day.