12 Australia

Milanovic

Almost 2/3 of Australia’s exports consists of raw materials, with the top five exports (by value) iron ore, coal, petroleum, gold, and wheat. Australia has the lowest level of export complexity among OECD countries. It appears, like Russia, to be a country benefitting from a very high land-to-labor ratio and using whatever is produced on the land, or mined from it, to export it. Even the companies that are often thought of as Australian are, Fernandes shows, majority-owned by foreigners.

Milanovic (2024) Powerful, but within the orbit of the empire