Divergent Paths: How Culture and Institutions Have Shaped North American Growth

Can geography explain Quebec's historical poverty?

“…Quebec-home of the lion's share of Canada's French population and Canada's second most populous province-has been the largest source of these differences (Dean & Geloso, 2022;Gagnon et al, 2023;Geloso, 2017;Migué, 1998;Paquet, 1999;Raynauld, 1961). Quebec's relative poverty dates as far back as the nineteenth century (Arsenault-Morin et al, 2017;Geloso, 2019b) when it appears that Quebec was between 34% and 42% poorer than Ontario (Canada's richest and most populous province) (Egnal, 1996;Geloso & Macera, 2020;McInnis, 1992). Given that Ontario was close to the average of free states in the United States (Egnal, 1996;Lewis & Urquhart, 1999), who were richer than slave states by somewhere between 20% and 40%, these proportions imply that Quebec was as poor as (or poorer than) the American slave states (Curtis & Geloso, 2022).…”

“…Quebec's relative poverty dates as far back as the nineteenth century (Arsenault-Morin et al, 2017;Geloso, 2019b) when it appears that Quebec was between 34% and 42% poorer than Ontario (Canada's richest and most populous province) (Egnal, 1996;Geloso & Macera, 2020;McInnis, 1992). Given that Ontario was close to the average of free states in the United States (Egnal, 1996;Lewis & Urquhart, 1999), who were richer than slave states by somewhere between 20% and 40%, these proportions imply that Quebec was as poor as (or poorer than) the American slave states (Curtis & Geloso, 2022). However, that gap also means that Quebec was roughly as rich as Latin America at that time (Geloso, 2019b).…”

“…The first category dominated the literature until the 1980s. It held that French-Canadians were culturally ill-disposed toward markets prior to 1960 and, as such, achieved poorer outcomes (Egnal, 1996;Jones, 1942;Ouellet, 1966Ouellet, , 1976Taylor, 1960). These explanations have been heavily questioned by econometric works by cliometricians that showed there were no differences in the efficiency of input use (Altman, 1998;Armstrong, 1984;Geloso et al, 2017;Lewis & McInnis, 1980Paquet & Wallot, 2007).…”

“…First, data uncovered by economic historians in recent years have shown that Quebec was the poorest place in North America as early as the seventeenth century and was roughly as poor as Latin America during the nineteenth century (Arsenault-Morin et al, 2017;Curtis & Geloso, 2022;Geloso, 2019b;McInnis, 1992;Zegarra, 2020). In contrast, Ontario was as rich as the average of free states in the United States and was far richer than Quebec (Egnal, 1996;Geloso & Macera, 2020;Lewis & Urquhart, 1999;McInnis, 1992). 1 Yet, Quebec and Ontario share very few geographic differences of relevance with the rest of North America.…”