J. Clark Leith
Professor Emeritus
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, 1967
Office: SSC 4021
Telephone: 519-661-2111 Ext. 85386
Fax: 519-661-3666
E-mail: leith@uwo.ca
Research Interests
Macro Policy in Less Developed Countries; Trade Policy in LDCs
Clark Leith came to Western in 1967 and retired as Professor of Economics at the University of Western Ontario in 2003. At that point he returned to Africa to continue his long-standing interest in the economic development of Africa. From 1969-1971 he taught at the University of Ghana, which led to several contributions on Ghana’s economy: a book on Ghana’s foreign trade regime published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (1974); a joint study of the interaction between economics and politics in Ghana's structural adjustment experience (1993); a monograph on Ghana’s economic reform program (1996); and a joint study of Ghana’s long-term growth (2002). His other African interest is Botswana, where he served as economic advisor in the Botswana Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (1986-88), as Director of Research and then Senior Policy Advisor, Bank of Botswana (1993-97), and again in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, full time 2003-05, and for several months a year 2005-15. He has contributed extensively to the study of Botswana, including the book Why Botswana Prospered, published in 2005. On Botswana Independence Day 2014 he received the Presidential Order of Meritorious Service. He also authored (jointly) a successful textbook in international economics, and numerous articles in major economics journals.
At the University of Western Ontario he has been Chairman of the Department of Economics, and Vice-President (Academic) and Provost. He has also held visiting teaching and research positions at the Catholic University of Peru, the University of Stockholm, Harvard Institute for International Development, and Oxford’s Centre for the Study of African Economies. Prior to his academic career, Prof. Leith was a Foreign Service Officer in the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, where he served in Santo Domingo and Chicago.
