A wage curve for Australia?

This paper examines the wage curve in Australia. Regressions for weekly ear nings are estimated on a pooled cross-section data set for 1982 to 1994/95. Using the preferred regression specification it is found that the elastici ty of weekly earnings with respect to state-level rates of unemployment is -0.07 to -0.09. These findings are robust to a variety of modifications to the regression specification. A comparison of Australia, the US and UK is u ndertaken to examine how differences in wage-setting institutions between t hose countries might affect wage curve estimates.