The Modern Caribbean Economy, Volume I

CHAPTER 1

The Contribution of Canadian Economic Thought to Caribbean Political Economy

A Preliminary Investigation

Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi

Summary

Chapter 1 seeks to investigate whether there are common theoretical threads between Canadian economic thought and Caribbean political economy. In doing so, the author briefly discusses the “staples theory,” the work of Arthur Lewis, the Plantation school literature, and contributions by Eric Williams and William Demas. The author then identifies key points of commonality and disagreement between the different approaches, and concludes with a discussion as to why the Canadian connection was dropped and the Lewis connection was downplayed.

Introduction

When I first stepped foot on the campus of The University ...