W.W. Rostow’s Theory of Economic Growth: A Canadian Case-Study

Abstract

The central purpose of this study is to examine the attempt by W.W.Rostow to express the process of economic growth in a set of five stages and to apply the stages system to the Canadian economy. A summary of the theory of stages is made from the full range of his writings, and its usefulness is appraised in the light of the many criticisms which have been made of it. The three central stages of growth are then applied to the development of the Canadian economy in the period 1820-1960. For each stage a comparison is made with the more usual interpretation in terms of the staple theory.