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Living costs and living standards: Australian development 1820–1870†

Author

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  • Laura Panza
  • Jeffrey G Williamson

Abstract

This paper contributes to the New World living standard leadership debate by comparing the Australian experience during 1820s–1870s with the USA, Latin America, and the UK. Using novel living costs data, we compute two estimates of income leadership: welfare ratios and purchasing–power–parity-adjusted GDP per capita. Australia started considerably below the UK and the USA but by the 1870s, it had overtaken the former and had almost done so for the latter, due to relatively rapid labour productivity growth and a steep decline in living costs. Still, in the 1870s Australia was not the world income leader, but a close second.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Panza & Jeffrey G Williamson, 2020. "Living costs and living standards: Australian development 1820–1870†," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 24(1), pages 80-97.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ereveh:v:24:y:2020:i:1:p:80-97.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ereh/hey025
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Andrew J. Seltzer, 2024. "The Political Economy of Minimum Wage Setting: The Factories and Shops Act of Victoria (Australia), 1896-1913," CEH Discussion Papers 02, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    2. Seltzer, Andrew, 2024. "The Political Economy of Minimum Wage Setting: The Factories and Shops Act of Victoria (Australia), 1896-1913," IZA Discussion Papers 16788, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Andrew Seltzer & Martin Shanahan & Claire Wright, 2022. "The Rise and Fall and Rise (?) of Economic History in Australia," CEH Discussion Papers 05, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    4. Luis Felipe Zegarra, 2020. "Living Costs and Real Wages in Nineteenth Century Lima: Levels and International Comparisons," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(2), pages 186-219, July.
    5. Andrew J. Seltzer, 2021. "Globalisation, migration, trade and growth: Honouring the contribution of Jeff Williamson to Australian and Asia‐Pacific economic history—Guest Editor's introduction," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 128-135, July.
    6. Martina Cioni & Giovanni Federico & Michelangelo Vasta, 2021. "Spreading Clio: a quantitative analysis of the first 25 years of the European Review of Economic History [Plague in seventeenth-century Europe and the decline of Italy: an epidemiological hypothesi," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 25(4), pages 618-644.
    7. Laura Panza & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2019. "Always Egalitarian? Australian Earnings Inequality c1870," CEH Discussion Papers 01, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    8. Laura Panza & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2021. "Always egalitarian? Australian earnings inequality 1870–1910," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 228-246, July.
    9. Seltzer, Andrew J., 2021. "Globalisation, migration, trade and growth: honouring the contribution of Jeff Williamson to Australian and Asia-Pacific economic history—Guest Editor's introduction," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 111038, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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