The paper considers the conjecture that forecasts from preferred economic models or theories d-separate forecasts from less preferred models or theories from the actual realization of the variable for which a scientific explanation is sought. Dseparation provides a succinct notion to represent forecast dominance of one set of forecasts over another; it provides, as well, a criterion for model p...

The OECD BEPS Action 6 report contains a principal purpose test rule (PPT rule) for the purpose of combating abuse of tax treaties. This PPT rule is also included in the OECD Multilateral Instrument. The PPT rule is (amongst others) applicable when ‘it is reasonable to conclude’ that a benefit (granted by a tax treaty) was one of the principal purposes of any arrangement/ transaction. This requ...

This paper develops a simple dynamic general equilibrium model of an agricultural economy, in which poor farmers borrow wheat from rich farmers to invest on their land. Because wheat output is stochastic (we allow for both idiosyncratic and aggregate shocks), there may be default ex-post. We compare equilibria in this economy with and without political intervention. Intervention is decided thro...

In almost all underdeveloped countries where per capita income is very low, income inequality has resulted in a number of evils, of which poverty is certainly the most serious one. Poverty infact is a socio-economic phenomenon that is intimately associated with inequality. It adversely affects human health, efficiency and productivity which in turn affect their income. It deprives a segment of ...

Child labor is often condemned as a form of exploitation. I explore how the notion of exploitation, as used in everyday language, can be made precise in economic models of child labor. Exploitation is defined relative to a specific social welfare function. I first show that under the standard dynastic social welfare function, which is commonly applied to intergenerational models, child labor is...

The traditional method of determining the optimal Economic Manufacturing Quantity (EMQ) policy for an unreliable production system is the minimization of the expected cost per unit time in the steady state which does not consider the reliability of the system in true sense. The purpose of this article is to introduce an alternative criterion of optimality called cost effectiveness which takes i...

One of the strongest motives in life is the desire to ‘keep up with the Joneses’. In economic debate, this tendency is reflected in a concern with international rankings of various kinds. These rankings are frequently used to bolster a variety of spurious arguments. A typical form of the argument is ‘Australia has declined relative to country X on scale Y, and we should therefore adopt policy Z...