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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
“There is scarcely any inquiry more curious, or, from its importance, more worthy of attention, than that which traces the causes which practically check the progress of wealth in different countries, and stop it, or make it proceed very slowly, while the power of production remains comparatively undiminished, or at least would furnish the means of a great and abundant increase of produce and population.” This introductory sentence is borrowed from T. R. Malthus' Principles of Political Economy, Book II, “On the Progress of Wealth” (2nd ed.), p. 309.
It is indeed curious that 152 years after Malthus' inquiry, and, what is more, twenty-six years after the Keynesian revolution, stunted growth remains a problem. Canada, for example, is exceptionally well endowed with natural riches, has a relatively well-educated, young, and increasing population, and enjoys a privileged position alongside the world's richest market. Yet, Canadian economic growth has been mysteriously stunted. Although Canada's recent evolution is perhaps the most puzzling to a foreign observer, stunted growth is not peculiar to this country. The United Kingdom, Belgium, and the United States are other instances. Until some ten years ago, France was generally considered as irretrievably condemned to economic stagnation, owing, it was said, to the characteristics of her population, and her institutions.
This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, in Hamilton, June 8, 1962.
1 Pigou, A. C., Memorials of Alfred Marshall (New York, 1956), 309.Google Scholar
2 Galbraith, J. K., The Affluent Society (Boston, 1958), 7.Google Scholar
3 Barber, C. L., “Canada's Unemployment Problem,” this Journal, XXVIII, no. 1, 02, 1962, 89.Google Scholar
4 Ibid., 101.
5 Report of the Special Committee of the Senate on Manpower and Employment (Ottawa, 1961), 3.Google Scholar
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid., 4.
8 Ibid., 10.
9 The pegging of the exchange rate has burdened Canada's economic policy with an additional, perhaps unnecessary, balance of payments constraint.
10 Meade, J. E., A Neo-Classical Theory of Economic Growth (London, 1961), v.Google Scholar
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid., 2.
13 Pigou, , Memorials of Alfred Marshall, 314.Google Scholar
14 Ibid., 317.
15 Ibid., 318.
16 Rostow, W. W., The Processes of Economic Growth (2nd ed., Oxford, 1960).Google Scholar
17 Ibid., 102.
18 Ibid., 108. See Dehem, R., “La propension à la croissance et l'économie belge,” Comptes rendus des travaux de la Société Royale d'Economie Politique de Belgique, no. 274, 11, 1960.Google Scholar
19 Hirschmann, A. O., The Strategy of Economic Development (New Haven, 1958), 57.Google Scholar
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid., 58.
22 Ibid., 59.
23 The gist of this paper is that since 1957 the structural weakness of the Canadian economy has become apparent, or has been revealed, after a period of exceptional development due to transient circumstances.
24 Harrod, R. F., Towards a Dynamic Economics (London, 1956), 81.Google Scholar