Jacob Viner, the Cost of Protection, and Customs Unions: New Light from a Manitoba Consulting Assignment

Paul Oslington

History of Economics Review, 2012, vol. 55, issue 1, 73-79

Abstract: This paper considers an extraordinary and almost unknown document which came out of a consulting assignment Jacob Viner undertook for the Canadian Province of Manitoba in the late 1930s as part of the Canadian Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations. Viner analysed the Canadian Federation as a customs union and the evidence points to it having an important influence on his development of the theory of customs unions, in particular providing a concrete example of trade diversion, and developing his understanding of the circumstances which affect the magnitude of trade diversion losses when assessing the overall impact of customs unions. Despite a sophisticated understanding of the role of tariffs on inputs in Viner’s report, and connections to subsequent development of the concept of effective protection, it does not have a place in the story of the concept of effective protection.

Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.1080/18386318.2012.11682194

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