Since the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Canadian dollar has come to be regarded as a petro-currency. Consequently, rising prices of oil and gas (as well as other natural resources) would increase capital inflows that would lead to a higher exchange rate and contribute to the decimation of the export-oriented Canadian manufacturing sector by making Canadian products less competitive internationally. Some have argued that the Canadian economy has started to show symptoms related to the Dutch Disease. One important symptom is the slow rate of productivity growth, which consequently leads to the theory that Canada’s productivity performance depends significantly on the foreign exchange value of the domestic currency. This dissertation attempts to address these issues and seeks to solve the question of whether the Canadian economy is suffering from the Dutch Disease, as well as whether or not movements of the Canadian dollar are responsible for the low Canadian productivity growth since the 1990s.

Since the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Canadian dollar has come to be regarded as a petro-currency. Consequently, rising prices of oil and gas (as well as other natural resources) would increase capital inflows that would lead to a higher exchange rate and contribute to the decimation of the export-oriented Canadian manufacturing sector by making Canadian products less competitive internationally. Some have argued that the Canadian economy has started to show symptoms related to the Dutch Disease. One important symptom is the slow rate of productivity growth, which consequently leads to the theory that Canada’s productivity performance depends significantly on the foreign exchange value of the domestic currency. This dissertation attempts to address these issues and seeks to solve the question of whether the Canadian economy is suffering from the Dutch Disease, as well as whether or not movements of the Canadian dollar are responsible for the low Canadian productivity growth since the 1990s.

ABSTRACT A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY: THE EFFECTS OF THE NATURAL RESOURCE-FINANCIAL SECTORS ON THE FORMATION OF RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET Soltanov, Elnur MS, Department of International Relations Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Fatih Tayfur January 2004, 114 pages This research aims to analyze Russian natural resource-finance sectors&rsquo / effects on Russian foreign policy from the collapse of the Soviet Union on. The main question it tries to answer is why they are successful to determine the main contours of a relatively peaceful foreign policy in a crises-laden Russia which have had so many reasons to switch to an aggressive behavior. In this regard, the military-industrial complex is the other crucial economic sector to be referred to frequently. Given the overwhelming nature of the international structure that Russia finds itself in, and given the general change in the worldview of the Russians, it becomes clear that the resource-finance sector on the one hand and the military-industrial complex on the other are much more than mere economic sectors, being organic material cores of alternative national and international identities. Such a holistic approach in turn makes it possible to draw on the explanatory power of the legitimacy factor and to go beyond different group preferences in accounting for Russian foreign policy. Analyzing different sectors&rsquo / and their commodities&rsquo / structural characteristics in the context of the international market helps to discard the &ldquo / politics of international trade&rdquo / as a too narrow conceptual framework to study Russian foreign policy and to understand different economic sectors&rsquo / true explanatory utility.

Since the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Canadian dollar has come to be regarded as a petro-currency. Consequently, rising prices of oil and gas (as well as other natural resources) would increase capital inflows that would lead to a higher exchange rate and contribute to the decimation of the export-oriented Canadian manufacturing sector by making Canadian products less competitive internationally. Some have argued that the Canadian economy has started to show symptoms related to the Dutch Disease. One important symptom is the slow rate of productivity growth, which consequently leads to the theory that Canada’s productivity performance depends significantly on the foreign exchange value of the domestic currency. This dissertation attempts to address these issues and seeks to solve the question of whether the Canadian economy is suffering from the Dutch Disease, as well as whether or not movements of the Canadian dollar are responsible for the low Canadian productivity growth since the 1990s.