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HOW DID THE WEALTHIEST AUSTRALIANS GET SO RICH?
Author(s) -
Siegfried John J.,
Round David K.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4991.1994.tb00058.x
Subject(s) - leverage (statistics) , economics , economic rent , disequilibrium , population , immigration , product (mathematics) , clothing , labour economics , market economy , geography , medicine , demography , archaeology , machine learning , sociology , computer science , ophthalmology , geometry , mathematics
Two hundred sixty‐three of the largest Australian fortunes are classified by date and industry of origination. More began in property development, sheep ranching and clothing manufacturing than in other industries. First generation immigrants own more than twice the number of fortunes as would be expected on the basis of their proportion of the population. A panel of experts judged that three‐quarters of the fortunes originated in competitive industries. One explanation for large fortunes accumulating in competitive industries is extraordinary returns to disequilibrium (innovation and product differentiation). Other explanations include the assumption of risk and the return to scarce entrepreneurial and managerial skills. Progress in communication and transport technology have made it possible to leverage modest Ricardian rents into large profits via chain operations.