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Living Standards, Terms of Trade and Foreign Ownership: Reflections on the Australian Mining Boom

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  • R.G. Gregory

Abstract

Australia is experiencing its largest mining boom for more than a century and a half. This paper explores, from a national perspective, important economic differences that arise when a mining boom, such as the current one, is generated by sustained export price increases (trading gains) rather than export volume increases. Since 2003 the terms of trade changes – through their direct trading gain effect and indirect real GDP effects - have increased Australian living standards. The increase, measured from official data and relative to the US, is about 25 per cent; an increase which probably places Australian living standards well above those of the US. But official data inadequately adjusts for foreign ownership of mining resources suggesting that this estimate is probably a little too high.

Suggested Citation

  • R.G. Gregory, 2011. "Living Standards, Terms of Trade and Foreign Ownership: Reflections on the Australian Mining Boom," CEPR Discussion Papers 656, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
  • Handle: RePEc:auu:dpaper:656
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    Cited by:

    1. Robert C. Feenstra & Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer, 2015. "The Next Generation of the Penn World Table," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3150-3182, October.
    2. Katherine Wynn & Mingji Liu & Jasmine Cohen, 2022. "Quantifying the economy‐wide returns to innovation for Australia," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 591-614, September.
    3. Pham, Tien & Jago, Leo & Spurr, Ray & Marshall, Justin, 2015. "The Dutch Disease effects on tourism – The case of Australia," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 610-622.
    4. Char-lee Moyle & Fabrizio Carmignani & Brent Moyle & Sajid Anwar, 2021. "Beyond Dutch Disease: Are there mediators of the mining–tourism nexus?," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(4), pages 744-761, June.
    5. Fleming, David A. & Measham, Thomas G., 2015. "Local economic impacts of an unconventional energy boom: the coal seam gas industry in Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 59(1), January.
    6. Freebairn, John, 2015. "Mining booms and the exchange rate," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 59(4), October.
    7. Grant Mark Nülle & Graham A. Davis, 2018. "Neither Dutch nor disease?—natural resource booms in theory and empirics," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 31(1), pages 35-59, May.
    8. Grace Taylor & Rod Tyers, 2017. "Secular Stagnation: Determinants and Consequences for Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 93(303), pages 615-650, December.
    9. Fleming, David A. & Measham, Thomas G., 2014. "Local job multipliers of mining," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 9-15.
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    11. Allen, Creina & Day, Garth, 2014. "Does China’s demand boom curb Australian iron ore mining depletion?," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 58(2), April.
    12. Yogi Vidyattama & Maheshwar Rao & Itismita Mohanty & Robert Tanton, 2014. "Modelling the impact of declining Australian terms of trade on the spatial distribution of income," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 7(1), pages 100-126.
    13. Kotey, Bernice & Rolfe, John, 2014. "Demographic and economic impact of mining on remote communities in Australia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 65-72.
    14. Huong Dinh & Ben Freyens & Anne Daly & Yogi Vidyattama, 2017. "Measuring Community Economic Resilience in Australia: Estimates of Recent Levels and Trends," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 1217-1236, July.
    15. Allen, Creina & Day, Garth, 2014. "Depletion of non-renewable resources imported by China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 235-243.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    resource booms; terms of trade; real GDP; foreign ownership; economic growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q33 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Resource Booms (Dutch Disease)
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation

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