Why Australia prospered
Subtitle: the shifting sources of economic growth
By: Ian W. McLean
Series: The Princeton economic history of the Western world
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Princeton, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 281
ISBN-13: 9780691154671
Subjects: Economic policy; Economic development
Description: "This book is the first comprehensive account of how Australia attained the world's highest living standards within a few decades of European settlement, and how the nation has sustained an enviable level of income to the present. Beginning with the Aboriginal economy at the end of the eighteenth century, Ian McLean argues that Australia's remarkable prosperity across nearly two centuries was reached and maintained by several shifting factors. These included imperial policies, favorable demographic characteristics, natural resource abundance, institutional adaptability and innovation, and growth-enhancing policy responses to major economic shocks, such as war, depression, and resource discoveries. Natural resource abundance in Australia played a prominent role in some periods and faded during others, but overall, and contrary to the conventional view of economists, it was a blessing rather than a curse. McLean shows that Australia's location was not a hindrance when the international economy was centered in the North Atlantic, and became a positive influence following Asia's modernization. Participation in the world trading system, when it flourished, brought significant benefits, and during the interwar period when it did not, Australia's protection of domestic manufacturing did not significantly stall growth. McLean also considers how the country's notorious origins as a convict settlement positively influenced early productivity levels, and how British imperial policies enhanced prosperity during the colonial period. He looks at Australia's recent resource-based prosperity in historical perspective, and reveals striking elements of continuity that have underpinned the evolution of the country's economy since the nineteenth century."--Book jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Preface and acknowledgments; title: Map; title: Introduction : weaving analysis and narrative; title: What is to be explained, and how comparative levels of gdp per capita -booms, busts, and stagnation in domestic prosperity; title: Origins : an economy built from scratch?; title: Squatting, colonial autocracy, and imperial policies; title: Becoming very rich; title: Depression, drought, and federation; title: A succession of negative shocks; title: The pacific war and the second golden age; title: Shocks, policy shifts, and another long boom; title: The shifting bases of prosperity; title: References; title: Index.