Premium
THE THIRD NOEL BUTLIN LECTURE: AUSTRALIAN EXCEPTIONALISM REVISITED
Author(s) -
Irwin Douglas A.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
australian economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.493
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1467-8446
pISSN - 0004-8992
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8446.2007.00209.x
Subject(s) - exceptionalism , productivity , position (finance) , demographic economics , per capita , economics , work (physics) , labour economics , development economics , political science , economic growth , sociology , demography , law , engineering , mechanical engineering , population , finance , politics
In the late‐nineteenth century, Australia had one of the highest levels of income per capita in the world. Over the twentieth century, Australia's exceptional position declined as its high labour force participation rate and male‐skewed gender ratio gradually aligned with other countries. A similar reversion occurred in the other important components underlying Australia's high productivity, such as work hours. As the structure of the economy shifted away from a reliance on agricultural and towards manufacturing, Australia's protective attitude and restrictive business practices may have exacerbated its loss in productivity. Considerable research remains to be carried out to confirm these views.