Why Australia Prospered

The Shifting Sources of Economic Growth

By: Ian W. McLean

Narrated by: Fleet Cooper

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 18th 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 19th century.

©2013 Princeton University Press (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

SKIP TO CHAPTER 3

This is a very good book, the first two chapters in the Audible menu are terrible. Skip them, I think they are why this is getting bad reviews. The book is very interesting and covers the whole of Australian history. From the economics of convict labour, to the political and social dominance of the aristocracy of land squatters. To the Victoria gold rush and it’s massive unrest and cultural changes to Australia. Then to the Panic of 1890 (then called the Great Depression) brought about by an Aussie debt crisis. To WW1 and WW2 and the diverse impact those wars had on the economy, to the rise of Asia and the modern Australian open resource economy. This is an excellent book to learn about Australia and after the first few awful chapters it gets very good. I especially liked learn about the Australian economic integration with the British Empire and the economics of colonialism in Australia. Read this book to learn about Australia and you won’t be disappointed.