Indigenous Technological Adaptation in Canadian Manufacturing, 1900-1929

Abstract

By estimating translog cost function models for important sectors of Canadian manufacturing, 1900-1929, a significant element of indigenous technological adaptation to local factor prices is measured. This refutes the notion that Canadian manufacturing in the early twentieth century was technically unadaptive and rigidly locked into imported, largely U.S., technology. Without technological adaptation over the period, costs in these Canadian industries would have been 15 to 20 percent higher by 1929, demonstrating that indigenous technological adaptation was important to their long-run growth and development.