The influence of agriculture on Australia's nineteenth and twentieth century economic development is well known. While wool's contribution is rightly celebrated, the contribution of agricultural crops has received less attention. This paper focuses on one major staple, wheat, from 1861 to 1939. Both patent data and a new measure of technological progress, the cumulative number of wheat varieties tested for local adoption, are used to quantify the contribution of agricultural innovation to growth. We find innovation in this sector made an important contribution to the growth of total factor productivity over the period.

中文翻译：

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1861 年至 1939 年小麦对澳大利亚农业的贡献

农业对澳大利亚十九、二十世纪经济发展的影响是众所周知的。虽然羊毛的贡献得到了应有的赞誉，但农作物的贡献却很少受到关注。本文重点关注 1861 年至 1939 年间的一种主要主食小麦。专利数据和技术进步的新衡量标准，即为当地采用而测试的小麦品种的累积数量，都被用来量化农业创新对增长的贡献。我们发现该部门的创新对这一时期全要素生产率的增长做出了重要贡献。