Consumer Prices and Expenditure Patterns in Australia 1850–1914

A consumer price index is estimated for Australia for the period 1850 to 1914. This required the derivation of expenditure weights, permitting in turn comparisons of changes in the composition of expenditure patterns both across time and with nineteenth-century United States evidence. Several variants of the price index were compiled to suit different uses as well as to assess the sensitivity of price movements to reasonable changes in estimation methods. No major differences in these variants were observed over the long run. In the 1890s and 1900s, however, significant short-run differences in price movements exist between variants of the CPI.     

Migrants and Technological Transfer: Chinese Farming in Australia, 1850–1920

Chinese farming in Australia between 1850 and 1920 has generally been given little attention, being usu ally characterised as just market gardening, but with little other detail about its development and characteristics. This article argues that Chinese farming was both complex and dynamic. Initially, Chinese farming was primarily casual labouring along European lines. However, from the 1880s onwards, Chinese farming became more specialised, focusing on a wide range of high-value, labour-intensive crops. The skill of the Chinese was not just the transference of farming techniques from China, but also in their entrepreneurship and ability to adapt their techniques to the Australian environment. Despite widespread European racism, some Europeans sought to capture the benefits of Chinese farming, developing European–Chinese partnerships. After 1900, Chinese farming declined in scale and diversity. At the same time, Europeans influenced by Chinese success adopted more labour-intensive farming practices.     

The impact of war on Russian and Soviet development 1850–1950

This article discusses the magnitude of wartime losses to Russian capital stock and population, the prospect of benefits from wartime developments and the burden imposed by the transfer of resources to the war effort. Total losses of manpower and capital, and the deprivation of civilian consumers, were greater in the Civil War (1918–1920) than in 1914–1917, but were exceeded by the impact of the Second World War (1941–1945). Potential benefits are not found to be significant. This article also examines the losses of population and capital during the ‘internal war’ of the 1930s.     

黎明前的电波战

像电影<永不消逝的电波>中的情景一样,在青岛解放前夕的黎明中,也上演着激烈的电波之战.     

中澳两国促进中小企业发展与创新的产业政策比较研究

在阐述中澳两国SMEs发展的一般政策背景,并从融资、技术、市场、集群及管理服务五个方面考察中澳两国促进SMEs发展与创新的产业政策的基础上,比较了这些政策,发现澳大利亚在这五个方面基本上有值得中国学习与借鉴的政策经验。     

The rise and fall of Spain (1270–1850)1

Two distinctive regimes are distinguished in Spain over half a millennium. The first one (1270s–1590s) corresponds to a high land–labour ratio frontier economy, which is pastoral, trade‐oriented, and led by towns. Wages and food consumption were relatively high. Sustained per capita growth occurred from the end of the Reconquest (1264) to the Black Death (1340s) and resumed from the 1390s only broken by late fifteenth‐century turmoil. A second regime (1600s–1810s) corresponds to a more agricultural and densely populated low‐wage economy which, although it grew at a pace similar to that of 1270–1600, remained at a lower level. Contrary to pre‐industrial western Europe, Spain achieved its highest living standards in the 1340s, not by mid‐fifteenth century. Although its death toll was lower, the plague had a more damaging impact on Spain and, far from releasing non‐existent demographic pressure, destroyed the equilibrium between scarce population and abundant resources. Pre‐1350 per capita income was reached by the late sixteenth century but only exceeded after 1820.     

The Evolution of Fiscal Policy in Australia

This paper examines the evolution of Australian fiscal policyand the fiscal policy framework over the past quartercentury.Following the early 1980s recession, a sustained fiscal consolidationsaw the general government budget balance (for all levels ofgovernment) move from a deficit of 3 per cent of GDP in 1983/4to a surplus of 1 per cent 5 years later in 1988/9. A severerecession in the early 1990s interrupted this process, and thebudget returned to sizeable deficits which peaked at 4 per centof GDP in 1992/3. The second half of the 1990s saw a repeatof the experience a decade earlier, with the budget returningto surplus in 1997/8. In contrast to the 1980s experience, however,the general government sector (for all levels of government)has recorded surpluses for the subsequent 8 years to the present.The paper outlines Australia's macroeconomic experience overthis time and argues that there have been two significant medium-termfactors motivating the extended periods of fiscal consolidation.The first factor, relevant since the mid-1980s, has been thelarge Australian current-account deficits since that time, andthe associated build-up of net foreign liabilities. The secondfactor, which entered the public debate more recently, is adesire to provide fiscal policy flexibility to respond to theageing of the population and the projected rising public costof health services—both influences that are likely tobe of increasing importance over the next generation or so.The paper discusses the introduction and evolution of Australia'smedium-term fiscal framework which has been put in place torespond to these challenges. Footnotes ¹ E-mail addresses: dgruen{at}treasury.gov.au; asayegh{at}treasury.gov.au