Bryan Haig

New Estimates of Australian GDP, 1861–1948/49

This article uses recently available historical data to compile new estimates of gross domestic product by sector for Australia as an alternative to the estimates by Colin Clark and Noel Butlin. These data are then compared with Clark’s and Butlin’s series, and with historical experience, as set out by Coghlan in Labour and Industry in Australia (1918). We caution against accepting Butlin’s results, and question whether his data, even when reliable, can form the basis for a new interpretation of economic history.