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This paper charts the evolution of mainly empirical research at the NIESR over the 1970s and 80s. As was all too evident there were very large discrete technical improvements in data handling and manipulation over this period. Less well appreciated were the effects on the economy of major supply-side shocks coming from the World economy leading to 'Stagflation' and, interconnected but somewhat later, in the UK, marked changes in macro policy regime. This latter was strongly influenced by the seminal papers of Lucas (1976) and Sims (1980); both highly critical of the then current practices in macroeconomics, though each having very different intellectual stances. The response in the NIESR was to engage at an early stage in these innovations; applying the mantra that an informed criticism was more efficient than an uninformed one. During this period it became a leader in the econometrics of applied macro modelling under different expectations assumptions, including the rational expectations hypothesis (REH). Throughout, it remained critical of the anti-empirical drift encouraged in the Lucas Critique, criticism borne out more recently by the financial instability of the 1990s and the crisis that followed.

Nigeria, a country in West Africa, sits on the Atlantic coast with a land area of approximately 90 million hectares and a population of more than 140 million people. The southern part of the country falls within the tropical rainforest which has now been largely depleted and is in dire need of reforestation. About 10 percent of the land area was constituted into forest reserves for purposes of conservation but this has suffered perturbations over the years to the extent that what remains of the constituted forest reserves currently is less than 4 percent of the country land area. As at today about 382,000 ha have been reforested with indigenous and exotic species representing about 4 percent of the remaining forest estate. Regrettably, funding of the Forestry sector in Nigeria has been critically low, rendering reforestation programme near impossible, especially in the last two decades. To revive the forestry sector government at all levels must re-strategize and involve the local communities as co-managers of the forest estates in order to create mutual dependence and interaction in resource conservation.

Post-secondary systems throughout Canada and the United States have struggled with funding issues during most of the last decade of the 20th Century, and the new millennium did not open with great enthusiasm for change. This article examines the impact of post-secondary education funding changes in Alberta, Canada, by tracing the historical development of funding initiatives. Historically, the province has relied extensively upon federal financial support to maintain programs of higher education, but that support has diminished as the federal government reduced transfer payments for social programs to all provinces. The decrease in federal funding coincided with the Alberta Government's initiative to reduce the provincial fiscal deficit. Concomitantly, the provincial government sought to impose performance-based funding, and emphasized a business-planning model upon public colleges and universities. The nature of the government actions is analyzed in relation to the concepts of efficiency of teaching, goodness of fit, and value-for-money.

Paul Robeson is one of the greatest yet most unknown figures of the 20th century. This article goes beyond the traditional bibliographic style of documenting this great life, toward constructing a usable philosophical framework from it. Utilizing Robeson's own works, and building on the small critical literature already in existence, I present his philosophical framework - comprised of anti-colonialism, socialism, and human rights. I present these dense, interconnected, and ever-expansive philosophical stances into a form of communication that can be easily understood, evaluated, taught, and compared. Understanding the philosophies, actions, and examples of his ideological framework will provide the appropriate contextual background for understanding (to play off the title of Robeson's 1958 book, Here I Stand) where Paul Robeson philosophically stood.