And if the profits from resource exports are captured by foreign investors, then commodity exporters would have very little to show for their natural wealth. More importantly, many of those “ifs” in the staples thesis narrative don’t fit the data. Or perhaps it’s better to say that they fit too many data points, and not just the resources sector. It is clear that the income generated by resource exports has been broadly sharedIt’s also clear that the income generated by resource exports has been broadly shared, or at least as broadly as the income from manufacturing exports. This won’t settle the debate, of course; the manufacturing sector continues to have a powerful hold on the imaginations of non-economists — and of politicians.

Source: National Post November 13, 2017 15:11 UTC