Commodity Price Shocks and the Australian Economy since Federation

Even though Australia has experienced frequent and large commodity export priceshocks like the Third World, it seems to have dealt with the volatility better. Why? Thispaper explores Australian terms of trade volatility since 1901. It identifies two majorprice shock episodes before the recent mining-led boom and bust. It assesses their relativemagnitude, their de-industrialization and distributional impact, and policy responses. Inwhat way has Australia been different from other commodity exporters experiencingvolatile prices?