| Abstract: | Using data on regional money stocks, a variant of Fisher's (1911) quantity theory of money identity, and a technique first suggested by Doblin (1951) and Friedman (1961), this paper presents the first consistently-based estimates of real GDP in each of the seven British colonies of Australasia for the period 1861–1991. Examination of the historical pattern of growth in the regional economies of Australasia has not previously been undertaken, due in particular to the dearth of data on aggregate incomes for the colonies (later states) of Australia. The data calculated here reveal the historical pattern of the domination of New South Wales, Victoria and New Zealand in real Australasian GDP, and the shrinkage of the cross-sectional dispersion of real per capita GDP in the seven colonies over this 13 1-year period. |
