Australia’s ‘Great Stagnation’: Everything You Need to Know About The Productivity Crisis — Greg Kaplan & Michael Brennan

Stagnation! The 2010s witnessed Australia’s weakest productivity growth in six decades.

How much of the slowdown is homegrown? How much reflects the broader “great stagnation” plaguing the West?

How much is simply an artefact of the way “productivity” is measured?

And what would a credible new growth model for Australia—with its distinctive reliance on mining over manufacturing—actually look like?

To answer these questions and more, I’m joined by two of Australia’s smartest economists.

Greg Kaplan is the Alvin H. Baum Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. He is also the cofounder and chairman of e61, a non-partisan economic economic research institute in Australia.

Michael Brennan is the CEO of e61. He was previously chair of Australia's Productivity Commission and a Deputy Secretary of the Australian Treasury.

We discuss the forces behind falling construction productivity; how to think about “Australia’s most productive company”; where to find quality gains in the services sector; what we can learn from the stunning innovativeness of Australia’s agricultural industry; why we need new economic engines beyond the Sydney–Melbourne duopoly; and much, much more.

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