The growth of the life insurance industry in Canada, 1909-1947.

The depression of the ‘thirties provided a great impetus to economic thinking. Since 1933 many discussions have centred upon cycle theory and full employment as the “Keynesian Revolution” took place. Now, a multitude of economists no longer assiduously believe in the ability of automatic forces in the market to maintain an adequate level of employment. To use economic terminology, there is a feeling that the ex ante propensity to save at full employment is greater than the corresponding ex ante propensity to invest. This inequality of these two variables is incompatible with the maintenance of full employment. A fall in the level of income (and hence employment) tends to restore the equality between the two propensities. Full employment is thus a condition of macro-economic disequilibrium. A large portion of the personal savings of Canadians is realized through the purchase of insurance. In the light of the industry’s activities in the savings and investment fields, the institution of life insurance is of great significance to modern economic problems. In this thesis I had hoped to treat briefly the causes of the increased demand for insurance. The work was to deal mainly with the insurance segments of the propensities to save and invest. The international aspect of the business was to have been taken into account. The limitation of the statistics prohibited this approach.[...