Supply chains are already incorporating citizen/consumer demands for improved animal welfare, especially through product differentiation and the associated segmentation of markets. Nonetheless, the ability of the chain to deliver high(er) levels and standards of animal welfare is subject to two critical conditions: (a) the innovative and adaptive capacity of the chain to respond to society's de...

Schemes for the assessment of farm animal welfare and assurance of welfare standards have proliferated in recent years. An acknowledged short-coming has been the lack of impact of these schemes on the welfare standards achieved on farm due in part to sociological factors concerning their implementation. Here we propose the concept of welfare performance based on a broad set of performance attri...

We investigate the relative merits of unconditional cash transfers (UCT), conditional cash transfers (CCT), and improvements in education quality on efficiency and welfare. In our setting some parents under-invest in their children's education because capital market imperfections prevent them from borrowing. When credit constrained households can be perfectly targeted by the government, we show...

I build a model of neoclassical production to examine the capital market and welfare effects of a uniform accounting standard (like IFRS). Firms vary in their cost of compliance to the standard, and investors vary in their cost of learning diverse standards for capital allocation. I show that a uniform accounting standard increases the quantity of capital in the economy and lowers the cost of c...

This paper examines the economic consequences of tightening auditing standards. We recognize that both auditors’ incentives and expertise are relevant for audit effectiveness. On one hand, tighter auditing standards counter the misbehavior of rogue auditors. On the other hand, tighter standards restrict auditors’exercise of professional judgement, leads to auditors’compliance mentality, and red...