Isolating the consequences of government policy on regional development: comparative analysis of the state border regions of Australia

Regional policy from the national government level in Australia has been intermittent since federation with the consequence that most regional policy has emerged at State Government level. This provides an opportunity for comparative analysis of the effectiveness of regional policy on an interstate basis. In order to conduct comparative analysis, this paper identifies a number of special regions in Australia that were potentially homogenous, but this homogeneity has been disturbed by the arbitrary location of States' borders in the nineteenth century. Further research into the economic performance of the State border regions is recommended because it would add to the understanding of regional policy design and evaluation of policy effects.