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The Australian growth miracle: An evolutionary macroeconomic explanation

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The purpose of this article is to understand the drivers of Australian economic growth since its Federation in 1901. Australia is an interesting case study given that it seems not to have been affected by the ‘natural resource curse’ like many other natural resource dependent countries. Indeed, at time of writing, it has been 23 years since it experienced a recession and its GDP per capita is now amongst the very highest in the World. At the end of the 19th Century it also had one of the highest per capita incomes in the World and, although there were economic difficulties between the World Wars, it did not fall into relative economic decline like, for example, Argentina, also a European immigrant country producing and exporting natural resources.

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  • John Foster, 2014. "The Australian growth miracle: An evolutionary macroeconomic explanation," Discussion Papers Series 521, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    • Handle: RePEc:qld:uq2004:521
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    1. Robert U. Ayres & Benjamin Warr, 2009. "The Economic Growth Engine," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13324.
    2. Molyneaux, Lynette & Wagner, Liam & Froome, Craig & Foster, John, 2012. "Resilience and electricity systems: A comparative analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 188-201.
    3. Robert M. Solow, 2007. "The last 50 years in growth theory and the next 10," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 23(1), pages 3-14, Spring.
    4. John Foster, 2011. "Evolutionary macroeconomics: a research agenda," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 5-28, February.
    5. Jakob Madsen & James Ang & Rajabrata Banerjee, 2010. "Four centuries of British economic growth: the roles of technology and population," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 263-290, December.
    6. Dodgson, Mark & Hughes, Alan & Foster, John & Metcalfe, Stan, 2011. "Systems thinking, market failure, and the development of innovation policy: The case of Australia," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(9), pages 1145-1156.
    7. Md. Shahiduzzaman & Khorshed Alam, 2014. "A reassessment of energy and GDP relationship: the case of Australia," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 323-344, April.
    8. Foster, John & Wild, Phillip, 1999. "Econometric Modelling in the Presence of Evolutionary Change," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 23(6), pages 749-770, November.
    9. Rajabrata Banerjee, 2012. "Population Growth and Endogenous Technological Change: Australian Economic Growth in the Long Run," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(281), pages 214-228, June.
    10. Ricardo Hausmann & César Hidalgo, 2011. "The network structure of economic output," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 309-342, December.
    11. John Foster & Phillip Wild, 1999. "Detecting self-organisational change in economic processes exhibiting logistic growth," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 109-133.
    12. Carlota Perez, 2002. "Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2640.
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    1. Doré, Natalia I. & Teixeira, Aurora A.C., 2023. "The role of human capital, structural change, and institutional quality on Brazil's economic growth over the last two hundred years (1822–2019)," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 1-12.
    2. Foster, John, 2021. "In search of a suitable heuristic for evolutionary economics: from generalized Darwinism to economic self-organisation," MPRA Paper 106146, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. John Foster, 2017. "Prior Commitment and Uncertainty in Complex Economic Systems: Reinstating History in the Core of Economic Analysis," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 64(4), pages 392-418, September.

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