Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ian W. McLean is a visiting research fellow in economics at the University of Adelaide, where he taught for many years.

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"Looking at a period spanning two hundred years, this book explores why Australia was so rich at the end of the nineteenth century and why it has remained rich. McLean shows how history sheds light on Australia's long-run economic performance and he cogently discusses the contributions and limitations of formal theory in explaining Australian growth."--George Grantham, professor emeritus, McGill University

"This exceptionally well-written book explains why Australia has been almost continuously prosperous since the first settlement. A truly deep study of the mechanisms of economic growth, it is a top-rate contribution to its field and will become the standard work on Australian economic history."--Eric Jones, professor emeritus, La Trobe University

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"Looking at a period spanning two hundred years, this book explores why Australia was so rich at the end of the nineteenth century and why it has remained rich. McLean shows how history sheds light on Australia's long-run economic performance and he cogently discusses the contributions and limitations of formal theory in explaining Australian growth."--George Grantham, professor emeritus, McGill University

"This exceptionally well-written book explains why Australia has been almost continuously prosperous since the first settlement. A truly deep study of the mechanisms of economic growth, it is a top-rate contribution to its field and will become the standard work on Australian economic history."--Eric Jones, professor emeritus, La Trobe University

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Why Australia Prospered

Princeton University Press

Contents

List of Figures...................................................................................ixList of Tables....................................................................................xiPreface and Acknowledgments.......................................................................xiiiMap...............................................................................................xviCHAPTER 1 Introduction: Weaving Analysis and Narrative...........................................1CHAPTER 2 What Is to Be Explained, and How.......................................................11Comparative Levels of GDP Per Capita..............................................................11Booms, Busts, and Stagnation in Domestic Prosperity...............................................15Other Indicators of Economic Prosperity...........................................................19From Evidence to Analysis.........................................................................25Extensive Growth and Factor Accumulation..........................................................27Growth Theory and Australian Economic Historiography..............................................29Recent Themes in GrowTheconomics..................................................................32CHAPTER 3 Origins: An Economy Built from Scratch?................................................37The Pre-1788 Economy of the Aborigines............................................................38The Aboriginal Contribution to the Post-1788 Economy..............................................42The Convict Economy and Its Peculiar Labor Market.................................................44Further Features of the Economy Relevant to Later Prosperity......................................50British Subsidies and Australian Living Standards.................................................53CHAPTER 4 Squatting, Colonial Autocracy, and Imperial Policies...................................57Why the Wool Industry Was So Efficient............................................................58Evolution of Political Institutions: From Autocracy to Responsible Government.....................63The Labor Market: Ending Transportation, Preventing Coolie Immigration............................67Thwarting the Squatters: Land Policies to 1847....................................................69Other Determinants of Early Colonial Prosperity...................................................73The Argentine Road Not Taken......................................................................76CHAPTER 5 Becoming Very Rich.....................................................................80The Economic Effects of Gold: Avoiding the Resource Curse.........................................84Sustaining Economic Prosperity Following the Rushes...............................................90Consolidating Democracy and Resolving the Squatter-Selector Conflict..............................96Openness and Growth...............................................................................100Rural Productivity and Its Sources................................................................108CHAPTER 6 Depression, Drought, and Federation....................................................113Explaining Relative Incomes.......................................................................113Eating the Seed Corn?.............................................................................116Boom, Bubble, and Bust: A Classic Debt Crisis.....................................................119Why Was Recovery So Slow? Comparison with Other Settler Economies.................................125Tropics, Crops, and Melanesians: Another Road Not Taken...........................................132Economic Effects of Federation....................................................................135Accounting for the Loss of the "Top Spot" in Income Per Capita....................................139CHAPTER 7 A Succession of Negative Shocks........................................................144Why Was the Economic Impact of World War I So Severe?.............................................147Why No Return to Normalcy?........................................................................148Pursuing Rural Development—A Field of Dreams?...............................................154Growth in Other Settler Economies.................................................................157Debt Crisis, Then Depression—Policy Responses and Constraints...............................160Imperial Economic Links—Declining Net Benefits..............................................165Could the Post-1960 Mineral Boom Have Occurred Earlier?...........................................170The Debate over Stagnant Living Standards.........................................................173CHAPTER 8 The Pacific War and the Second Golden Age..............................................176Why the Pacific War Fostered Domestic Growth......................................................177The Golden Age Was Not Uniquely Australian........................................................183Export Growth, Factor Inflows, and the Korean War Wool Boom.......................................186Macroeconomic Theory and Policies—What Role?................................................191Location Advantage: Asian Industrialization and Changing Trade Partners...........................193High Tide for Australian Industrialization........................................................196Underinvestment in Human Capital?.................................................................199The Debate over Postwar Growth Performance........................................................205CHAPTER 9 Shocks, Policy Shifts, and Another Long Boom...........................................210Why Did the Postwar Economic Boom End?............................................................212The Reemergence of a Booming Mining Sector........................................................215Macroeconomic Management in the 1970s.............................................................217Economic Policy Shifts in the 1980s...............................................................219Reevaluations.....................................................................................224The Quarry Economy: The Return of Resources-Based Prosperity......................................228The Contribution of Economic Reforms to Productivity..............................................235Sustaining Prosperity through Boom and Bubble—A Historical Perspective......................241CHAPTER 10 The Shifting Bases of Prosperity......................................................246Appendix Note on Statistics and Sources...........................................................257References........................................................................................259Index.............................................................................................277

Chapter One

Weaving Analysis and Narrative

Australian history is almost always picturesque; indeed, it is so curious and strange, that it is itself the chiefest novelty the country has to offer, and so it pushes the other novelties into second and third place. And it does not read like history, but...