This thesis examines the rate and pattern of settlement of the Canadian Prairies over the period of the 'Wheat Boom'. The principal aim of the work Is to explain the economic reasons for the late start to that settlement. Economic growth of the Canadian Prairies did not begin until almost the turn of the 20th. century, long after the initial occupation of the American West. I hypothesise in this thesis that the delay in the development of the Canadian Prairies was principally due to an initial lack of appropriate technology. The growing season In Canada is shorter than that further south, leaving grain farmers with little time to sow in spring and harvest In the fall. The technology available in 1880 enabled farmers to crop less than 50 acres even in the best areas, making farming uneconomical over most of the Prairie area. The technology available to the Prairie farmer over the period is carefully examined to determine the effects of various changes which occurred. In order to analyze the implications of technological change, a number of representative Prairie farms are modelled using the technique of dynamic linear programming. Five locations which were first occupied on different dates are analyzed, and for each location the value of capitalised rent for a typical new farm is calculated on four dates. The results of these calculations show that in 1880 most Prairie land was economically worthless. Over time all the hypothetical farms showed Increases in value, and settlement appears to have occurred on approximately the date at which the calculated value of the land rose above zero. The reasons for the increases in the value of the land are examined, and the most important exogenous change appears to have been the improvement of mechanical farming equipment. The development of appropriate 'dry-farming' techniques was also important, but it is argued that this was endogenous to Prairie growth. Wheat prices did not begin to increase until about 1904 and therefore were not a cause of the start of the 'Wheat Boom', although they contribute significantly to farming profits by 1910. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

The primary objective of this thesis is to examine the relationship between household income dimensions — that is, the amount, size, and kind of income — and associated household types. The relationship between different types of income and total income is also examined. In addition attention is given to a number of other variables which could affect the basic relationship. The main argument associates the nuclear family with skilled wage labour; the extended family with kinship controlled resources; and the consanguineal household with unskilled labour and/or welfare dependence. Hypotheses are stated which suggest the relationship between stability of income with different types of households. Analysis of the household income profiles of two reserves in British Columbia was undertaken in order to test the theory. The two reserves used in the study were Alert Bay Reserve and Skidegate Reserve. Each income source was characterized as being one of six possible types of income: wages, kinship, social services, reciprocity, kind and unearned. Tests consisted of proportion comparisons between households of different types and their associated income profiles. Data was examined separately for each of the reserves. Support was found for the predicted association between high income totals and extended family households. There was some support for the proposition that nuclear families are high per-capita income families, but no support for the proposition that extended family households are low per-capita income households. While there were only a few cases of consanguineal households there was strong support for the proposition that such households are welfare or pension income dependent households. There was no association between income sector dominance and household type. Because the data available did not allow for an examination of skill level and stability of income it was not possible to do a thorough examination of the argument for income dominance and certain household types. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

The basic objective of this thesis is to identify some of the basic trends tending to shape the Canadian economy. The procedure followed was to examine economic theory and previous forecasting studies to determine methodological principles and apply these principles to estimate the possible future course of the Canadian economy between 1965 and 1980. No comprehensive economic theory appears to be presently developed to explain and therefore to form a complete basis for predicting the economic growth of a nation. In an effort to make economic theory manageable, many variables affecting economic growth and development such as those of sociology tend to be ignored in quantitative terms. Together with these unquantifiable variables, it is not known how many non-economic factors affect economic growth. It would seem to be these many unknown factors that tend to cause errors in the results of long range economic forecasts. Economic growth, defined as the expansion of a nation's capacity to produce, in an already advanced industrial economy, is heavily dependent on the quantity and quality of the nation's labour force, natural resources, real capital, and the technological level in the society. These basic determinants are tempered by the sociological, institutional, and consumption trends or factors within the economy. Although many articles have been written on various aspects of economic growth, the present state of knowledge does not appear to be appreciably past the theorizing stage. As no complete theory of economic growth and development appears to exist, the long range economic forecaster may gain some insights from economic theory but depend very much on his own resources to make various forecasts. The most common method to determine output appears to necessitate a population forecast from which a labour force estimate is made and then with assumptions regarding per-man productivity, an estimate for total output can be made. Sophisticated population and labour force forecasts tend to divide the population into age and sex specific cohorts and then analyze the trends within each of these cohorts. The methodology used in this thesis was based on broad estimates for various trends per thousand population. Due mainly to an expected high birth rate in Canada, the population is anticipated to increase at about 3.8 percent per year to about 25,800,000 by 1980. Of this figure, about 10,000,000 are expected to make up the labour force. The two significant trends expected in the labour force are a large influx of young people and a greater participation of women in the labour force. In this thesis, the total output was separated into agriculture, government and public administration, and commercial non-agricultural sectors. This enabled the analysis of the trends in the work force, productivity, and output in each sector to be examined. The significant trends in output expected are an increase in per-man productivity, but a declining labour force in agriculture, a rather constant productivity per man, but an increase in the total labour force in the government and public administration sector, and an increase in both the labour force and productivity per-man in the commercial non-agricultural sector. The real increase in output of the combined sectors is estimated to approximate 4.6 percent per year between 1965 and 1980 for the Canadian economy. With the total output estimated, an estimate was made as to the division of the output between capital accumulation, government expenditures, consumer expenditures, imports and exports. It was found that the division of the output between these broad sectors tended to be rather stable in relation to the gross national product. Because of this stability, future estimates for the broad categorical spending were based mainly on simple trend projections. From the historical spending patterns, it would appear difficult to justify any drastic changes in the basic spending patterns. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

This thesis seeks to assess, for the new Soviet industrial area of Central Siberia, the nature and extent of its natural resources, the magnitude and structure of industrial development and the contribution of the area to the Soviet economy. Central Siberia is defined as that area which is located between Lake Baykal and the Kuzbass and which extends northward to the right bank of the Angara river and southward to the Tuva ASSR. Industrial activity is focused on the Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk and Bratsk nodes. This study shows that, until 1956-1958, Central Siberian industrial raw materials, except wood, were little known and hardly utilized. Development of hydro electric potential was minor. Service and administrative functions, and mining of rare metals, formed the basis of the economy. The Irkutsk planning conference, held in 1958, is discussed in order to show the changing concepts of Soviet authorities in relation to eastern development. The major raw materials and energy sources are examined to show their absolute size, relative role in the total resource base of the USSR and suitability for large-scale development. The growth of hydro and thermal electric stations, and the Siberian Electric Power System, is examined to show the relative role of hydro and thermal power, the changing nature of the spatial organization of electric energy production, and the areal relationship between centres of energy generation and those of new industrial development. The generation of electric energy within the Siberian Electric Power System and the consumption of this energy by sector of the economy has been calculated for 1964 and estimated for 1970. Functional industrial relationships and the nature of industrial development are examined to show the growth of new industries and changing patterns of spatial organization of production. Using production figures, the relative significance of each major industry in Central Siberia to the Soviet economy is assessed. Nodes, and hierarchies of centres, within Central Siberia are examined on the basis of their spatial location, not in relationship to administrative subregions. This study finds that reserves of such raw materials as wood, nephelite, iron ore and salt are sufficiently large and accessible to permit major industrial growth in Central Siberia. Hydro power potential and brown coal reserves will permit large-scale installation of generating equipment. The region is, however, still dependent on imported oil. It was also observed that the number of new industries being developed in each centre follows an ordered (Hierarchical) distribution of productive forces, commencing with main centres and finishing with small towns. It was found that Central Siberia's contribution to the Soviet economy now reaches, or soon will reach, large national proportions only in the production of wood, ethyl alcohol, aluminum and electric energy. Output of other products is only a small proportion of total national production. The development of Central Siberia appears to face two major problems. The first concerns labour. Attracting a trained labour force and maintaining high levels of labour productivity in face of great shortages of material amenities, poses a serious problem to those Soviet planners who are guiding the centrally planned economic development of this marginal area. Another problem involves capital return. It was found that a much lower rate of capital return exists in the east than in the west. Soviet authorities, nevertheless, are investing large sums of money into eastern industries because of Soviet need for raw materials, industrial products and the desire to provide effective occupation of strategic eastern areas. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Recent transformations within modern economies have often been discussed under the concept of “restructuring”. However this term, despite its widespread use in sociology, has little explanatory power. What is needed instead is a consideration of how restructuring has taken place. Three major theoretical positions which attempt to provide this understanding are Marxist monopoly captialism, post-fordism and post-industrialism. Each of these paradigms provides a different understanding of the nature and operation of contemporary capitalist formations. My purpose in this thesis is to determine which of these different viewpoints is most applicable to the Canadian situation. I will do so through an examination of changes in the self-employed sector of the Canadian economy since 1960. The self-employed sector, besides being of intrinsic interest because of its recent attention by politicians and the popular media, is an important testing ground for the relative validity of the above theories in the Canadian context. Each framework is consistent with a set of well-defined and contrasting predictions about what should happen to the overall size of the self-employed sector, as well as expectations about the direction of ascriptive inequality, both within the sector and in the larger society. Using time series regression procedures, declines and increases in the size of the entrepreneurial sector over the last thirty or so years are documented. In addition, the importance of increases in the sector is examined by modelling the effect of unemployment on self-employment. Predictions about ascriptive inequalities are tested through an investigation of earnings functions within the self-employed and employed populations. The results of these analyses suggest that a post-fordist understanding of the contemporary Canadian economy is most appropriate. Self-employment has clearly increased since 1960, and ascriptive inequalities, particularly by gender, have persisted throughout much ofthe latter half of this period. The implication of this is that in order to understand the larger processes shaping our economy, as well as the nature of work beyond self-employment, we are most likely to find answers in discussions about post-fordism. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

The topic of this thesis is the relationship between transportation modes and regional economic development. The objective is to determine the influence of the mode on the pattern of development. The three most significant variables in transmitting the influence are seen to be: the construction pattern and attributes of the transport systems; the resources of the region; and the stage of development of the region. The basis of the relationship is that theoretically and empirically, in a frontier region transportation is one of the most effective and controllable factors influencing industrial investments. The relationship is examined by associating private investments in northeastern British Columbia with the demand and supply of transportation units in the region. The investment statistics are drawn from government publications while the transportation units are documented in a variety of ways. Firstly, the historical development of the networks is discussed. Then, a measure of the road network is developed to simulate the changing relative lengths of the road links over time. Investment in industrial categories in the study region was found to be related to attributes of transport networks, such as rates and frequency. Correspondence with firms in the study area supplied additional information about transportation needs and costs. The empirical data on transportation networks are discussed in terms of theories of industrial location and regional economic development to arrive at explanations of the spatial and temporal distribution of the investment. The conclusions drawn from the study verified that investments in certain sectors of the economy were related to specific transport modes. Investments in some primary industries were dependent on certain transport units supplied by the rail network. Cheaper freight rates, volume and size restrictions and frequency characteristics of the rail mode made it attractive to those industries which traditionally had low value-to-weight ratio goods. Investments in the primary industries were also associated temporally with changes in the rail network. The wood products and paper and allied industries received investments temporally and spatially related to changes in the rail network. Investments in industries linked with these primary industries were also documented showing temporal sequence patterns. The findings demonstrated that in a resource region, transportation units with specific characteristics are desired to facilitate development of resources. Cost was found to be one dominating consideration. Some industries which used the rail system, could have used the road network but it would have cost 10-30% more to do so given the characteristics of the existing roads. It was found in other industries that the frequency of service or volume capacity characteristics of the rail system were superior to the road system. These characteristics were found to be the most important in the study region and were incorporated into a model of transport related development in a frontier region. The first stage of the model covered the development of an interregional link to join the region with its potential markets. This interregional link or path was at first supplied by a road network and is traditionally of poor quality. The second stage coincides with the "opening up" of the region. Resources are developed and some processing of these resources begins. At this stage, a rail network with its lower rates, large capacities and interregional characteristics is the most useful mode. During this stage the region is slowly beginning to develop its urban hierarchy, but is still sparsely settled. The third stage is reached when activities are linked both in a forward and backward direction, to give the region a greater range of products, and in general products with a higher value-to-weight ratio. Because of this and because the urban hierarchy begins to develop, the highway network becomes more competitive. The model therefore presents a way of looking at the changing function of road and rail networks as a frontier region develops. This changing function is based on the characteristics of the transport modes, the production mix of the region and the level of development of the region. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

M.Comm. / In considering the challenges and pitfalls of South Africa's global integration, the circumstances preceding the liberalisation attempt of the 1980's were considered. The De Kock approach to liberalising the economy was unsuccessful owing to the real side of the economy not being in a position to support the liberalisation of the dynamic financial sector. The role of sequencing appears to have been ignored. The lack of government stabilisation was a primary factor contributing to the failure of this liberalisation attempt. Foreign investors, who had been attracted by the well-developed financial sector, lost confidence when exposed to the accompanying backward real sector. Contrary to authorities' initial aim, this premature liberalisation attempt was fatally disrupted by trade and financial sanctions imposed against South Africa. This placed South Africa's ability to meet its international debt commitments in jeopardy. Foreigners refused to roll over debt, and this resulted in a debt standstill in September 1985. To save the crumbling economy, a surplus on current account of balance of payments had to be imposed as a policy measure in order to pay back foreign debt. Although this may have seemed sensible to the authorities at the time, the negative effect that such a policy of price adjustments would have on investment, and therefore growth, was ignored. On examining the correlation between investment and the current account post 1985, it is clear that the current account was in surplus as investment declined. This strongly suggests that investment was the adjustment variable which induced the current account surplus. This paper suggests that such a situation could have been avoided had more attention been given to the sequence in which the economy was opened up. A Smithian approach is proposed. Regression analysis is employed in order to develop an investment function. This model clearly shows that a depreciating exchange rate impacts negatively on investment. Thus the maintenance of a current account surplus was not in the interests of investment growth, and hence economic growth. Rather than relying on balance of payments adjustments, South Africa should possibly have allowed a greater role for organised sequencing. The first step in the Smithian series is the liberalisation of the real sector. Recent World Trade Organisation negotiations have contributed to progress in this regard. The real sector is making good progress in integrating with the world economy. However, it is possibly being hindered by the reluctance of the government to liberalise the foreign exchange market. Stabilisation, the second step in the series is being hindered by the aforementioned reluctance in terms of the foreign exchange market, and by fiscal policies which are lagging behind the progress of monetary policy. The primary problem in terms of fiscal policy is that the authorities have yet to recognise the complementarity of price as well as income adjustments. Financial markets are liberalising fast. The primary concern here is that these markets are opening up in favour of foreigners, rather than in favour of residents. Such lopsidedness may hinder the effectiveness of a liberalisation attempt. Therefore, if South Africa is to open up its economy in the well structured Smithian manner, we need to: speed up foreign exchange market liberalisation; recognise the complementary role of price and income adjustments in attaining a tighter fiscal stance; attempt to open up the financial sector in favour of residents as well as non-residents.

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / Development should not be viewed as just a project but must be understood as an overarching strategy with a thorough implementation plan and specific targets as well as review mechanisms. All different spheres of government, organs of civil society and business have a tremendous role to play in pursuit of sustainable economic growth and development. In Khayelitsha there are emerging trends of bulk infrastructure spending and community led partnership that seek to unlock the economic potential however this progress has thus far been limited to retail development with no productive industrial development. / South Africa

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