Why Australia Prospered: The Shifting Sources of Economic Growth, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2013; electronic versions available
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. (blurb)
Reviews are here, here, here and here. Among other things, McLean’s analysis questions that of Kelly and Blainey.
