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Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 99 No. 2 1984

Inflation, Employment, and the Dutch Disease in Oil-Exporting Countries: A Short-Run Disequilibrium Analysis

Sweder van Wijnbergen

World Bank

Abstract

We explain nontraded goods and labor shortages in the Gulf countries, the decline of the traded goods sector in oil producers (“Dutch Disease”), and the absence of employment benefits of higher oil revenues in Latin American oil producers using a disequilibrium model where real wages and the real exchange rate adjust slowly to clear the labor and nontraded goods market. Higher oil revenues can be likened to a transfer putting pressure on NT goods prices and drawing resources out of the T sector. The slope of the wage indexation line determines whether classical unemployment or repressed inflation results. Various policy measures are analyzed.

DOI
10.2307/1885524
Volume
99
Issue
2
Pages
233
Sources
openalex crossref

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