Emily Skarbek, a HOPE Center fellow in 2011-12, has published a new article and has a second that will be published soon.

"The Chicago Fire of 1871: A Bottom-Up Approach to Disaster Relief" challenges the notion that the only effective response to a disaster can come from a centralized authority such as a government office or agency. Using expenditure and donation data compiled from archival records, she shows how private individuals, businesses, corporate entities, and municipal governments came together in the absence of a central relief agency to provide aid to victims of the Chicago fire. 

The paper appears in the July 2014 issue of Public Choice.

The second paper, "F. A. Hayek and the Early Foundations of Spontaneous Order," will appear in a volume titled Hayek and the Modern World, edited by Sandra Peart and David Levy. The paper looks at the influence of Mandeville and Smith in Hayek's understanding of the relationship between rules and order.

Emily is a lecturer in political economy at King's College London. For more on her work, please visit her website.