The impact of wage regulation, Bauer said, had destroyed the major competitive advantage of developing countries: abundance of cheap labor. Bauer contrasted the rapidly growing East Asian economies and India to argue that "contrived scarcity" injured "prospects for economic growth" (Bauer 1958b, 4).

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 1324