How Did the Wealthiest Australians Get So Rich?

Abstract

Two hundred sixty‐three of the largest Australian fortunes are classified by date and industry of origination. More began in property development, sheep ranching and clothing manufacturing than in other industries. First generation immigrants own more than twice the number of fortunes as would be expected on the basis of their proportion of the population. A panel of experts judged that three‐quarters of the fortunes originated in competitive industries. One explanation for large fortunes accumulating in competitive industries is extraordinary returns to disequilibrium (innovation and product differentiation). Other explanations include the assumption of risk and the return to scarce entrepreneurial and managerial skills. Progress in communication and transport technology have made it possible to leverage modest Ricardian rents into large profits via chain operations.

The Limited Role of Market Power in Generating Great Fortunes in Great Britain, the United States, and Australia

“…12 The remainder of this section is taken largely from Siegfried and Round [1994], section VII. It is the lottery-type incentive of a high variance in returns that spurs them on.…”

“…14 For more details on the particular industries in which the great fortunes of Great Britain, the United States, and Australia originated, see Siegfried and Roberts [1991], Blitz and Siegfried [1992], and Siegfried and Round [1994], respectively. Second, consider the distinction between infra-marginal and marginal returns.…”

The super-rich in global perspective: a quantitative analysis of the Forbes list of billionaires

“…Indeed, this seems to be the first study looking at the issue from a global perspective. What does exist are single country studies analyzing in which sectors great fortunes were made and whether these sectors are characterized by restrictions to competition -see Siegfried and Roberts (1991) for the UK, Blitz and Siegfried (1992) for the US, Siegfried and Round (1994) for Australia, Hazledine and Siegfried (1997) for New Zealand. In all of these studies the economic sector was identified in which the fortunes were originally generated.…”

Do capitalistic institutions breed billionaires?

“…At least in earlier studies of the mega-rich in the USA (Blitz and Siegfried 1992), the UK (Siegfried and Roberts 1991), Australia (Siegfried and Round 1994) and New Zealand (Hazledine and Siegfried 1997), it was found that two-thirds of the fortunes came from competitive industries and not from monopolies. As explanations for the phenomenal success of the super-rich self-made people in the above mentioned studies, the following sources are suggested: the ownership of scarce resources, inframarginal rents, disequilibrium profits, innovations, product differentiation, risk-taking and extraordinary entrepreneurial and managerial skills, as well as luck.…”