The State,The Market and Economic Development: A Second Look at Adam Smith in Theory and Practice

This article looks at the place of government in the development of market economies. Using ideas from Adam Smith, and illustrations from Anglo-American economic history, it shows how government was deeply involved in creating the conditions for capitalism and in moulding a sustaining environment for private enterprise. Despite the claims of contemporary laissez-faire ideology to the contrary, the emergence and the maintenance of a capitalist economic system always depend, at least in part, on an effective state.     

An Unsettled “Stranded Asset Debt”? Proposing a Supply-Side Counterpart to the “Climate Debt” in a Bid to Guide a Just Transition from Fossil Fuels in South Africa and Beyond

The reign of the fossil fuel empire must come to an end if the average global temperature rise is to be meaningfully capped. Accordingly, a myriad of financial and non-financial stranded assets will be generated in the process. Ample research has explored the implications for a South African fossil transition from a domestic perspective, but a lacuna persists in linking South Africa’s fossil regime to broader international finance flows, and particularly the role that actors from the “global North” should play in phasing out South African fossil fuels. This research finds that such institutions have exacerbated South Africa’s prospective stranded asset exposure, and by doing so, have accrued a Stranded Asset Debt (SAD)—as a supply-side counterpart to the demand-side climate debt, which they have also accumulated—perhaps to the tune of at least several dozens of billions of dollars. Although the Paris Agreement is flawed, it embodies language that can be leveraged to settle the SAD “bill”.     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Nonprofit Fundraising

In this article, I apply and discuss two alterative approaches for evaluating nonprofit fundraising practices. First, I introduce simple financial ratios, using a sample of New York state social welfare nonprofits. Then, I construct Adjusted Performance Measures, which attempt to neutralize the uncontrollable outside forces that nonprofits face in their fundraising. I compare the two types of measures statistically, and examine their respective strengths and weaknesses.     

Comparative Spatial Filtering in Regression Analysis

One approach to dealing with spatial autocorrelation in regression analysis involves the filtering of variables in order to separate spatial effects from the variables’ total effects. In this paper we compare two filtering approaches, both of which allow spatial statistical analysts to use conventional linear regression models. Getis’ filtering approach is based on the autocorrelation observed with the use of the G_i local statistic. Griffith's approach uses an eigenfunction decomposition based on the geographic connectivity matrix used to compute a Moran's I statistic. Economic data are used to compare the workings of the two approaches. A final comparison with an autoregressive model strengthens the conclusion that both techniques are effective filtering devices, and that they yield similar regression models. We do note, however, that each technique should be used in its appropriate context.     

The Archaeology of Slavery at the Van Cortlandt Plantation in the Bronx,New York

Excavations at the Van Cortlandt Mansion, the central structure of an eighteenth-century plantation located in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York, highlight the difficulty of using archaeological evidence to document the story of enslavement in early America. While the documents indicate the extent of the Van Cortlandts' involvement in the slave trade and in the reliance on enslaved labor to build and run their enterprise, the excavations carried out over several years have not yielded concomitant evidence.     

Ethnohistorical geography and aboriginal rights litigation in Canada: memoir of an expert witness

Since the early 1950s, evidence from ethnohistorical geography has played an important role in aboriginal rights claims and litigation in North America. I became involved in Canadian aboriginal and treaty rights litigation over 35 years ago. My participation has included several landmark cases: Regina v. Horseman (treaty rights), Delgamuukw v. Regina (Comprehensive title claim), and Regina v. Powley (Métis rights). Most of the evidence that I have presented over the years has dealt with various aspects of the changing spatial economies of First Nations and Métis communities from Ontario to British Columbia. The Hudson's Bay Company's vast archive has been the primary source for this data.