General Theory of Relativity for Development Economics

Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity

On the general relativity theory

In Appendix III of the fifth edition of his book Space, Time, Matter [15] henceforth cited as W (which has not been translated into English), Hermann Weyl derived for the first time, motivated by cosmological considerations, the general frequency shift formula for sources and observers moving arbitrarily in a general spacetime. In his discussion of cosmology (W, 39) he argued for a non-stationa...

Measurement Theory and General Relativity

The theory of measurement is employed to elucidate the physical basis of general relativity. For measurements involving phenomena with intrinsic length or time scales, such scales must in general be negligible compared to the (translational and rotational) scales characteristic of the motion of the observer. Thus general relativity is a consistent theory of coincidences so long as these involve...

Theory, General Equilibrium and Political Economy in Development Economics

I discuss the role of economic theory in empirical work in development economics with special emphasis on general equilibrium and political economy considerations. I argue that economic theory plays (should play) a central role in formulating models, estimates of which can be used for counterfactual and policy analysis. I discuss why counterfactual analysis based on microdata that ignores gener...

Some Remarks on Mathematical General Relativity Theory

This paper gives a brief survey of the development of general relativity theory starting from Newtonian theory and Euclidean geometry and proceeding through to special relativity and finally to general relativity and relativistic cosmology.