Skip to main content

Canada, Economics in

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

Abstract

In the first half of the 20th century, economics in Canada was primarily economic history, and its contribution was the staple theory of Canadian economic development. After the Second World War Keynesian macroeconomics swept the nation and, despite its British origin, it indigenized into a theory of primary product export-based growth, and a Western Marxist theory of the staple trap. In the last quarter of the century, positivism, monetarism, and neoconservative new classical economics swept north from the United States, leaving only the specific domestic circumstances to which it was applied as the distinctive thing about economics in Canada.

This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition, 2008. Edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Alexander, J.A. 1995. Our ancestors in their successive generations. Canadian Journal of Economics 28: 205–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Angers, F.-A. 1961. Naissance de la pensée économique au Canada français. Revue de l’histoire de l’Amérique français 15: 204–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ascah, R.L. 1999. Politics and public debt: The Dominion, the banks and Alberta’s social credit. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bladen, V.W. 1978. Bladen on bladen: Memoirs of a political economist. Toronto: Scarborough College.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boucher, P. 1664. Histoire véritable et naturelle des moeurs et productions de la Nouvelle France. Paris. Reprinted Boucherville, Québec: Société historique de Boucherville, 1964.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brecher, I. 1957. Monetary and fiscal thought in Canada, 1919–1939. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Breckenridge, R.M. 1894. The Canadian banking system, 1777–1890. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brittnell, G.E. 1939. The wheat economy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cherriman, J.B. 1857. Review of A.A. Cournot. Recherches sur les principes mathématiques de la théorie des richesses. Canadian Journal of Industry, Science and Art 2: 185–194. Reprinted in Dimand. 1995. Cournot, Bertrand, and Cherriman. History of Political Economy 27, 563–578.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coats, R.H. 1932. Fifty years of statistical progress. In Fifty years retrospect: Canada 1882–1932. Toronto: Royal Society of Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Courchene, T. 1975-1980. Money, inflation and the bank of Canada. Vol. 2. Montreal: C.D. Howe Research Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Creighton, D. 1937. The commercial empire of the St. Lawrence 1760–1850. Toronto: Ryerson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dimand, R.W. 1988. An early Canadian contribution to mathematical economics: J.B. Cherriman’s 1857 review of Cournot. Canadian Journal of Economics 21: 610–616.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dimand, R.W. 1992. Political protest and political arithmetic on the Niagara frontier: Robert Gourlay’s Statistical Account of Upper Canada. Brock Review 1: 52–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dimand, R.W. 1995. Cournot, Bertrand, and Cherriman. History of Political Economy 27: 563–578.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dimand, R.W. 2005. David Hume on Canadian paper money: A neglected contribution. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 37: 783–787.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drummond, I.M. 1983. Political economy at the University of Toronto: A history of the department, 1888–1982. Toronto: Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Easterbrook, W.T. 1959. Trends in Canadian economic thought. South Atlantic Quarterly 58: 91–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falardeau, J.-C. 1944. Problems and first experiments of social research in Quebec. Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 30: 664–694.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowke, V.C. 1946. Canadian agricultural policy: The historical pattern. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • George, P. 1989. Classical writings in Canadian economic history: Natural resources in Canadian economic development. In Research tools in Canadian studies, ed. D.C. Poff. Montreal: Association for Canadian Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, C.D.W. 1961. Canadian economic thought: The political economy of a developing nation 1814–1914. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, and London: Cambridge University Press, for the Duke University Commonwealth Studies Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, H.S. 1954. The economics of a common property resource: The fishery. Journal of Political Economy 62: 124–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, H.S. 1961. The economists versus the bank of Canada. Toronto: Ryerson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gourlay, R. 1822. Statistical account of upper Canada compiled with a view to a grand system of emigration, in connexion with a reform of the poor laws. 3 vols. London: Simpkin and Marshall. Reprinted New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1966; abridged with introduction by S.R. Mealing, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, Carleton Library, 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  • Granatstein, J.L. 1982. The Ottawa men: The civil service mandarins 1935–1957. Toronto: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamouda, O.F., C. Lee, and D. Mair. 1998. The economics of John Rae. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helliwell, J. 1993. What have Canadian economists been doing for the past twenty-five years? Canadian Journal of Economics 26: 39–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Innis, H.A. 1930. The fur trade in Canada. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Innis, H.A. 1940. The cod fisheries. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Innis, H.A. 1951. The bias of communication. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Innis, H.A. 1956. In Essays in Canadian economic history, ed. M.Q. Innis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Innis, M.Q. 1935. An economic history of Canada. 3rd ed, 1954. Toronto: Ryerson.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, R.W. 1965. John Rae, political economist: An account of his life and a compilation of his main writings. Vol. 2. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, H.G. 1963. The Canadian quandary. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, H.G. 1968. Canadian contributions to the discipline of economic science since 1945. Canadian Journal of Economics 1: 129–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keyfritz, N., and H.F. Greenway. 1961. Robert Coats and the organization of statistics. Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 27: 313–322.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lower, A.R.M. 1943. The development of Canadian economic ideas. In The Spirit of American Economics, ed. J.F. Normano, Vol. 1. New York: Day.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackintosh, W.A. 1923. Economic factors in Canadian history. Canadian Historical Review 4: 12–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mackintosh, W.A. 1939. The Economic background of dominion-provincial relations. Ottawa: J.O. Patenaude (King’s Printer), Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations (Rowell-Sirois Commission). Reprinted Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, Carleton Library, 1964.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mavor, J. 1923. My windows on the street of the world. Vol. 2. New York: Dent.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minville, E. 1979. L’économie du Québec et la science économique, with a new introduction by F.-A. Angers. Montreal: Fides.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montpetit, E. 1939–1942. La conquetê économique. Vol. 3. Montréal: Valiquette.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neill, R. 1972. A new theory of value: The Canadian economics of H.A. Innis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neil, R. 1991. A history of Canadian economic thought. London/ New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Neill, R., and G. Paquet. 1993. L’économie hérétique: Canadian economics before 1967. Canadian Journal of Economics 26: 3–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Owram, D. 1986. The government generation: Canadian intellectuals and the state 1900–1945. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paquet, G., ed. 1989. La pensée économique au Québec français: Témoinages et perspectives. Montréal: Association canadienne-française pour l’ avancement des sciences, Les Cahiers scientifiques 67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parent, E. 1846. Importance de l’étude de l’économie politique. Montréal: Revue Canadienne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parish, J. 1997. A history of business economics in Canada. Canadian Business Economics 5: 1–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parizeau, J. 1968. La recherche en sciences économiques. In La recherché au Canada français, ed. L. Beaudoin. Montréal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pentland, H.C. 1950. The role of capital in Canadian economic development before 1875. Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 15: 457–474.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pentland, H.C. 1981. Labour and Capital in Canada 1650–1860, ed. with an introduction by P. Phillips. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rae, J. 1834. A statement of some new principles of political economy, exposing the fallacies of the system of free trade, and of some other doctrines maintained in the ‘Wealth of Nations’. Boston. Reprint in James. 1965. John Rae, political economist: An account of his life and a compilation of his main writings, Vols. 2. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saunders, S.A. 1939. The economic history of the maritime provinces. Ottawa: J.O. Patenaude (King’s Printer), Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations (Rowell-Sirois Commission).

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, A.D. 1955. The economics of natural resources. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott Thomas, J. 1889. The conditions of female labour in Ontario. University of Toronto Studies in Political Science, series III, ed. W.J. Ashley. Reprint in The Proper sphere: Woman’s place in Canadian Society, ed. R. Cook and W. Mitchinson. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shortt, A. 1987. Adam shortt’s history of Canadian money and banking: 1600–1880. Toronto: Canadian Bankers Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shortt, S.E.D. 1976. The search for an ideal: Six canadian intellectuals and their convictions in an age of transition 1890–1930. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skelton, O.D. 1911. Socialism: A critical analysis. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skelton, O.D. 1932. Fifty years of political and economic science in Canada. In Fifty Years in retrospect: Canada, 1882–1932. Toronto: Royal Society of Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spafford, S. 2000. No ordinary academics: A history of the department of economics and political science at the University of Saskatchewan. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, K.W. 1960. Economic scholarship in Canada. Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 26: 6–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Timlin, M.F. 1942. Keynesian Economics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Reprint with introduction by L. Tarshis and biographical note by A.E. Safarian, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, Carleton Library, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Viner, J. 1924. Canada s balance of international indebtedness 1900–1913. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wakefield, E.G. 1968. In Collected Works, ed. M.F. Lloyd-Pritchard. Glasgow/London: Collins.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2008 The Author(s)

About this entry

Cite this entry

Dimand, R.W., Neill, R.F. (2008). Canada, Economics in. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2476-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2476-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95121-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics