Australian economic performance

[Doug Henwood]

[any comments, Australians or antiglobalizers?]

"Australia in the International Economy"

       BY:  KYM ANDERSON
               University of Adelaide
               CIES, Centre for International Economic Studies

Document:  Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
            http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=253710

Paper ID:  CIES Discussion Paper No. 0049
     Date:  December 2000

  Contact:  KYM ANDERSON
    Email:  Mailto:kym.anderson at adelaide.edu.au
   Postal:  University of Adelaide
            CIES, Centre for International Economic Studies
            School of Economics
            Adelaide SA5005,    AUSTRALIA
    Phone:  (+ 61 8) 8303 4712
      Fax:  (+ 61 8) 8223 1460

Paper Requests:
  Contact Jane Russell at Mailto:cies at economics.adelaide.edu.au
  University of Adelaide, Centre for International Economic
  Studies (CIES), Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. Phone:+618 8303
  5672.

ABSTRACT:
  At the start of the twentieth century, Australia was arguably
  the highest-income country in the world. By 1950 it was ranked
  third; by 1970 it was eighth; and by 1999 it was twenty-sixth,
  according to the World Bank Atlas method of measuring GNP per
  capita (or twentieth using the World Bank's Purchasing Power
  Parity method)--not counting several rich countries with less
  than one million people. By that standard at least, the
  long-term performance of Australia's economy has been relatively
  poor over the past century.

  Over the decade of the 1990s, by contrast, Australia has,
  according to that same World Bank source, 1 out-performed all
  other advanced economies other than Ireland and Norway in terms
  of GDP per capita growth. This difference between the economy's
  recent and earlier performances is arguably due in no small part
  to the economic policy reforms of the past two decades and in
  particular the belated opening of the Australian economy to the
  rest of the world. Having been more protectionist towards
  manufacturing than all other OECD countries except New Zealand
  for most of the century, and having stood aside from the
  industrial trade policy reforms agreed to by other Contracting
  Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in
  the first seven rounds of multilateral trade negotiations (1947
  to 1979), Australia has undergone remarkable reforms in the late
  20th century.

  The present chapter first explores the extent to which the
  Australian economy has become more integrated into international
  markets in the past two decades, not just absolutely but also
  relative to the rest of the world. It then focuses on how the
  structure of our trade has changed and on the extent to which
  markets abroad for Australian export products have opened up,
  this being another potential contributor to the
  internationalisation of our economy. A third contributor is the
  reduction in non-governmental barriers to trade, most notably
  via the information technology revolution. The chapter concludes
  by examining opportunities and challenges ahead for Australian
  businesses and governments assuming the recent frenetic pace of
  globalization continues.