No quick cure for skill shortages

Drug shortages: searching for a cure.

Shortages of prescription generic drugs have recently made headlines in Canada and elsewhere. The causes and possible solutions for these shortages are still unclear. With the failure of "market forces," has the time come to establish a Crown corporation to ensure the supply of essential drugs?

National summit on physician employment finds no quick fixes for specialist job shortages.

Adjusting to Skill Shortages: Complexity and Consequences

Skill shortages are often portrayed as a major problem for the economies of many countries including the Australian economy. Yet, there is surprisingly little evidence about their prevalence, causes and consequences. This paper attempts to improve our understanding about these issues by using econometric methods to analyse the Business Longitudinal Database, an Australian panel data-set with in...

Technology, Wages and Skill Shortages: Evidence from UK Micro Data

Why have skill shortages continue to persist despite increases in training and the skill levels of the workforce? We argue that technical progress has raised the demand for skilled labour to mach the observed increase in supply. We provide econometric evidence in support of this hypothesis, showing that skill shortages are higher for establishments that use advanced technology in the production...

No cure no pay: How to contract for software services

50% of all software projects are total failures and another 40% are partial failures according to widely quoted surveys in UK, USA and Norway. Large government projects in all 3 countries have been reported with spectacular failure and expense to taxpayers (Royal Academy of Engineering and British Computer Society 2004). What is the problem? Most discussions have centered on improving the softw...