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6890169 
Journal Article 
Natural Resources and Regional Disparities: A Skeptical View 
Copithorne, LW 
1978 
English 
A study of the role of natural resources in Canada 's regional economic disparities contradicts the ' staple theory ' of traditional Canadian economics and supports conclusions of the Economic Council of Canada 's 1977 study. The latter attributed economic disparities to differences in productivity and technical, aggregate demand, and urban structure, rather than to natural resources, exports of staples, transportation, and tariffs. The present study uses aggregate measures and multi-regional linear programming models of forest products, gold and base metals, asbestos, and energy. Results strongly suggest that under the current forest resource pricing method in British Columbia, natural resource rents have inflated wage payments in manufacturing, resulting in: (1) the manufacturing sector priced almost out of existence, (2) high local cost of living, (3) inemployment, and (4) stimulation of in-migration despite unemployment. Other conclusions: (1) interregional migration is ineffectual in changing long-run wage rates: (2) in a competitive trading region (unlike British Columbia), the general wage level is determined in nonprimary trading sectors, independently of the natural resource endowment; (3) some surpluses in resource industries are monopoly profits, not Ricardian economic rents; and (4) government equalization transfer of economic rents have been smaller than transfers under the oil export tax/import scheme or Churchill Falls power agreement. (Lynch-Wisconsin) 
Water Resources Abstracts; Natural resources; Economic development; Regional development; British Columbia(Canada); Staple theory; Forests; Pulp and paper industry; Population; Economic growth; Regional analysis; Economics; Income distribution; Resources development; Model studies; Linear programming; Computer models; SW 4020:Evaluation process; SW 1050:Conservation in industrial use; SW 4070:Ecological impact of water development