Economics Speaker Series: Dr. Donn Feir

Can increased property rights of historically marginalized groups result in economic inclusion?

In her upcoming lecture, “Institutional Drift, Property Rights, and Economic Development: Evidence from Historic Treaties,” Professor Donn Feir from the University of Victoria explores the answer in the context of perceived land cession by Indigenous groups in Canada and how it changed over time.

Everyone is welcome, and registration is not required.

Abstract

For nearly three centuries, Indigenous peoples within the borders of present-day Canada engaged in treaty-making with the British Crown and other European powers. These treaties formed the colonial legal basis for access to Indigenous lands. However, treaties were not negotiated everywhere, including in regions subsequently settled by Europeans. While initially, after the historic treaty period came to an end, the property rights claims of all Indigenous communities were weak in the eyes of the state, modern legal decisions made due to Indigenous nations being legally able to take their cases to the court, resulted in income divergence between nations that were perceived to extinguish their title to land in historic agreements and those that had not. These changes shed light on how legal power can increase economic development for groups, even if rights are communal, and how modern shifts in legislation can interact with historical institutions in meaningful, potentially unexpected ways.