Economic History Commons^™

Critique And Transformation: On The Hypothetical Nature Of Ecosystem Service Value And Its Neo-Marxist, Liberal And Pragmatist Criticisms, Andony P. Melathopoulos, Alex Stoner

Journal Articles

Ecosystem service valuation (ESV) attempts to transform the opposition of human economic necessity and ecological conservation by valuing the latter in terms of the services rendered by the former. However, despite a number of ESV-inspired sustainability initiatives since the 1990s, global ecological degradation continues to accelerate. This suggests that ESV has fallen far short of its goals of sustainable social transformation—a failure which has generated considerable criticism. This paper reviews three prominent lines of ESV criticism: 1) the neo-Marxist criticism, which emphasizes the “fictitious” character of ecosystem commodities; 2) the liberal criticism through Friedrich Hayek's concept “scientistic objectivism”; and 3) …

Adam Smith, Natural Movement, And Physics (Working Paper), Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Pushing The Limits: International Land Acquisitions In Comparative Perspective, Ariane Goetz

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The role of investor countries in large-scale land acquisitions is poorly understood in the contemporary “land grab” literature. Orthodox explanations largely build on deductive analyses that deviate from the emerging empirical evidence, and/or face analytical difficulties when trying to capture why large-scale land acquisitions happen. This thesis investigates the global phenomenon of “land grabbing” from the comparative perspective of two major investor countries: the UK and China. The regional focus is on Sub-Saharan Africa, a major target of land-consuming investments since 2000.

The dissertation advances three arguments: Firstly, the specific details of the home country’s industrial set-up, development challenges, ideological …

Into The Red: A Look Into The Reasons Why Refugees Decide To Flee, Settle Or Migrate To And From Morocco, Fadeelah E. Holivay

Master's Theses

This research paper explores some of the main reasons why refugees and asylum seekers, particularly from sub-Saharan African countries, embark on a journey and decide to settle, flee or migrate to and from Morocco. Because of this phenomenon, Morocco has seen a 96% increase of refugees migrating to the borders of Morocco each year for the past three years. Many say that this astonishing increase of migrants choosing Morocco is due to such factors as: wars breaking out regionally across central African and Middle Eastern countries causing them to flee; Morocco being a culturaly diverse francophone country whose laws and …

El Recuperador Urbano Reconstruido: Una Perspectiva Crítica Sobre La Gestión De Residuos Urbanos En Buenos Aires Y La Nuevas Políticas Públicas De "Ciudad Verde" / The Urban Recycler, Reconstructed: A Critical Perspective On The Waste Managementprocesses Of Buenos Aires, And The New Public Policies Known As “Green City”, Mira Korber

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Historically, a survival method for the most impoverished populations of developing countries has been the collection, accumulation, and sale of recycled materials accessible in the urban waste generated by large metropolitan areas. After Argentina’s economic crisis of 2001, the number of people who participate in this informal sector of work in Greater Buenos Aires boomed due to the financial recession that devastated the country. In the last fourteen years, the population of urban recyclers, colloquially called cartoneros or cirujas, has not diminished. Various advances have been made towards the legitimation of their work as environmental protection and recycling through their …

El Modelo Médico, El Capitalismo Y La Acción Pública: Un Estudio Sobre Discapacidad Y Empleo En La Argentina / The Medical Model, Capitalism And Public Action:A Study Of Disability And Employment In Argentina, Zoe Zakin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

People with disabilities are one of the largest “minority” groups in the world, accounting for approximately 15% of the global population. They are still, however, denied most of their basic rights in countries around the world. While movements have been made around access to education, transportation, and health systems, people with disabilities are still culturally thought of as incapable of being able to work. By being characterized this way, people with disabilities are denied a most basic human right. In Argentina, there has been greater effort in recent years to provide services for people with disabilities, which are a growing …

Women Write About Che, Nancy Stout

Library Staff Publications

In the last five years, three women have written biographies of Ernesto "Che" Guevara after decades of his life story being solidly in the hands of men. The question is: do women write biography differently?

Digitally Mapping The Growth Of The Railroads In The United States, Michael Weaver

Yale Day of Data

As part of my dissertation, I creating digital maps of the extent of the railways in the United States during the late 19th century (1880 to 1910) on a yearly basis. While other researchers have created digital maps of the railways in approximately 10-year intervals, this misses out on the rapid change in the railways in the interim. These previous digitization attempts have relied on using detailed maps created of the railways at a given time. But accurate maps were not made on a yearly basis and only exist for roughly every 10 years. However, during the 19th century, people …

Petition Of Prisoners In Worcester Jail To Extend The Prison Yard, September 8, 1784., Elijah Isaacson, George Shayer, Jacob Ellison, Henry Chase, Jonathan Willington, Daniel Novell, Asa Danforth, Matthew Knight

Broadus R. Littlejohn, Jr. Manuscript and Ephemera Collection

The prisoners ask that the prison yard at Worcester jail be extended to accomodate the increasing number of prisoners.

The Effect Of Single Women And The Early Modern Economy, Bridget Heussler

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Historians have shown that women are generally more accepted as workers within thriving economic environments. This is particularly true of eighteenth-century Europe, a time of economic transition, expansion and social flux. Historians have indicated a rise of never-married women in eighteenth-century towns and cities, but our knowledge of women's specific roles and contributions during this time of economic expansion remains slim. My research examined and compared tax records from the parish of St. Philibert in Dijon, France between 1730 and 1750. An examination of the tax records allows historians one indication of the overall economic contribution of individual householders within …

Breaking Social Confinement: An Analysis Of Eighteenth-Century Women In The French Economy, Meghan Turok

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

The study of single women in early modern Europe (1500-1800) has become a focus of scholarly examination during the past ten years. Historians have recognized that female singleness was often detested as it rejected the societal expectations of women that included domesticity and submission. But what they have yet to identify are the valuable economic contributions single women as a whole provided to society. In order to offer further research to this study, I examined 1795 census records from the Archives départementals de la Côte d’Or in Dijon, France that I translated from French to English. The census I examined …

Synthesizing The Vertical And The Horizontal: A World-Ecological Analysis Of 'The Industrial Revolution', Part I, Christopher R. Cox

Dissertations and Theses

'The Industrial Revolution' is simultaneously one of the most under-examined and overly-simplified concepts in all of social science. One of the ways it is highly under-examined is in the arena of the ecological, particularly through the lens of critical world-history. This paper attempts to analyze the phenomenon through the lens of the world-ecology synthesis, in three distinct phases: First, the history of the conceptualization of the Industrial Revolution is examined at length, paying special attention to the knowledge foundations that determine these conceptualizations. Secondly, I sift out what I believe is the dominant model throughout most of modern …

Trade, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a historical overview of analysis of U.S. foreign trade policy during the early decades of the country's history. Examines bilateral U.S. trade relations with France and Great Britain, provides import and export statistics, details on commodities and products imports and exported, trade statistics, and information on the political and economic factors shaping U.S. trade during this period.

Revenue, U.S. Government, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a historical overview of U.S. Government revenue receipts and spending during the early years of national history. Presents revenue generation statistics, information on revenue sources, and information on domestic and international political and economic factors affecting government revenue receipts.

New York Stock Exchange, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a historical overview of the origins and early development of the New York Stock Exchange.

Working Paper No. 36, The Rise Of Marginalism: The Philosophical Foundations Of Neoclassical Economic Thought, Emily Pitkin

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry examines the works of the early thinkers in marginalist theory and seeks to establish that certain philosophical assumptions about the nature of man led to the development and ultimate ascendance of neoclassical thought in the field of economics. Jeremy Bentham’s key assumption, which he develops in his 1781 work, A Fragment on Government and an Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, that men are driven by the forces of pain and pleasure led directly to William Stanley Jevons and Carl Menger’s investigation and advancement of utility maximization theory one hundred years after Bentham, in 1871. …

Swedish Immigration: Why They Came To Minnesota, Emma Erickson

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

The Effect Of Macroeconomic Conditions On Applications To Supplemental Security Income, Ke Xu

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This study examines whether macroeconomic conditions affect applications to the Supplemental Security Income program. Specifically, we focus on the impact of unemployment rate on under age 18 applications. Using data from 2002 through 2012, we found that a higher unemployment rate is associated with an increased intention to apply for Supplemental Security Income benefits for both disabled adults and children. However, the effect is much higher for adults. These findings suggest that under age 18 applications of Supplemental Security Income is sensitive to the macroeconomic conditions.

Too Hot To Handle: Managing America’S Ecosystems In A Changing Climate, Riley Morin

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

For over 140 years, Americans and have enjoyed their national parks. In the national parks, nature and history come together to form uniquely public as well as enormously valuable landscapes. Today, America’s national parks are in danger of undergoing serious changes. Climate change is going to alter the physical characteristics of the national parks. Many of the parks have changed before, but this change will be the most dramatic. In this report I examine the historical and current mission of the National Park Service. I also examine the past and current valuation of the national parks by the American people. …

The Political History Of Sugarcane-Based Ethanol In Brazil, Joshua Gagner

Political Science Theses and Capstones

With the Middle East putting an embargo on oil in 1973, oil prices ascended to levels that made importation of oil expensive. Brazil also faced another issue with sugar prices going down in 1973, putting much of their sugar supply on reserve. Brazil’s military government then made a decision to adopt the sugarcane-based ethanol program, Pro-Alcool. Pro-Alcool’s goal was to produce an alternative energy source to gasoline and take pressure off of oil importation. While initially intended to be a short-term fix, a second oil strike in 1979 pushed Pro-Alcool to higher levels. Oil industries were initially opposed to ethanol …