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

economic historian Economic history is the study of history using methodological tools from economics or with a special attention to economic phenomena. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of ...

who was a longstanding professor at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, 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 se ...

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

and 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.'' H ...

. 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 the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, 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 the 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, from 1984 to 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 The ''Journal of Canadian Studies'' () is a bilingual peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of Canada. It is published three times a year by the University of Toronto Press The University of Toronto Press is a ...

'' 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, Canada West, on 24 November 1859 to ...

, Harold Adams Innis,

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed in the 1920s and 1930s by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made t ...

, 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 used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...

. His work offers a right-wing analysis of Canadian economic history. He established himself as a critic of Harold Adams Innis’ staple thesis, 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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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 University of Toronto alumni {{Canada-economist-stub