Robin F. Neill (1931–2014) was a Canadian

economic historian Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and ins ...

who was a longstanding professor at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning Wo ...

in Ottawa then, latterly, at the

University of Prince Edward Island The University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) is a public university in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the only university in the province. Founded in 1969, the enabling legislation is the ''University Act, R.S.P.E.I 2000.'' ...

. Born in 1931 in

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Robin Neill held a B.A. and M.A. in political economy from the University of Toronto and a PhD in economics from Duke. His academic appointments included: University of Saskatchewan, 1960–69, University of Prince Edward Island, 1970–72, Carleton University, 1972–95 (retired as full professor), University of Prince Edward Island and Carleton University (-2013), adjunct professor, 1995–1998. He was special advisor to the Fisheries Council of Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, 1984–1985. He was on the board of governors of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council from 1997 to 2003 and served as vice-president from 1998 to 2000. He was on the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies, research advisory board since 1998 and served as chairman of the RAB since 2001. Over his career, Neill wrote three books and over forty academic articles. His writings in the '' Journal of Canadian Studies'' were extensive — with subjects including

Adam Shortt Adam Shortt (1859–1931) was an economic historian in Ontario. He was the first full-time employed academic in the field at a Canadian university ( Queen's University). Biography Shortt was born in Kilworth, Ontario, on 24 November 1859 to Ge ...

, Harold Adams Innis,

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

, economic activity in Quebec, the state of economic history in the 1970s, and the Saskatchewan school of economic

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

. His work offers a right-wing analysis of Canadian economic history. He established himself as a critic of Harold Adams Innis’

staple thesis In economic development, the staples thesis is a theory of export-led growth. The theory "has its origins in research into Canadian social, political, and economic history carried out in Canadian universities...by members of what were then known as ...

, which explains Canadian economic development as a lateral, east–west conception of trade. Neill advocated a post-Innisian thesis, explaining the development as an expression of variegated regions (population density, cultural politics, geographic characteristics) and of their particular north–south relations with the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Publications

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Book chapters

Selected articles

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References

External links

Robin Neill Memorial Blog
* 1931 births 2014 deaths Canadian economists 20th-century Canadian historians Canadian male non-fiction writers Economic historians Writers from Thunder Bay 21st-century Canadian historians {{Canada-economist-stub