Some of the hypotheses regarding the role of institutions in long-run growth which have recently been advanced in the growth and history literatures imply that, given its initial conditions, Australia in the nineteenth century should have acquired quite different economic (and political)...

The recovery from the 1890s depression in Australia was prolonged, and economic growth 1895-1913 was below that in the comparable settler economies of Argentina and Canada. Why? Australia's hesitant initial recovery is typically attributed to the imbalances in the economy resulting from the...

In this paper we attempt to relate the discussion of the discovery and production of gold which appears in the literature on international monetary economics to that found in writings on economic development in the regions of recent settlement. An examination of both national and regional...

The historical analysis of US regional growth is improved by augmenting existing estimates of state personal income per capita, extending previous studies of convergence across states, and more broadly, offering an improved basis for interpreting other issues in regional development such as the...

Between 1870 and 1890 Australian incomes per capita were 40 percent or more above those in the United States. About half this gap is attributable to Australia's higher labor input per capita, and half to its higher labor productivity. The higher labor input is due in part to favorable...