We study the implications for optimal monetary policy when declining nominal wages is not a viable margin for adjustment to adverse economic conditions. To this end, we develop a New Keynesian model where downward nominal wage rigidity arises endogenously. We show that the optimal policy response to changing economic conditions is asymmetric. Another important finding is that downward nominal r...

An endogenous growth model is developed to explore the effect of work and income sharing (WIS) on economic growth and welfare in a developing rural economy. The practice of WIS is a mechanism which converts incremental diversity of risk into volatility reduction and overall welfare gain. However, the effect on economic growth is sector specific. WIS in the intermediate goods sector has a pro-gr...

The forces of the market and systems competition bring about economic and social convergence in Europe, and there is no need for social policies at the EU level. Social harmonization would distort migration flows and slow down the speed of economic convergence. National welfare states will be threatened by the free migration of people in Europe. The race to the bottom is a serious risk. However...

Article history: Available online 26 March 2007 Empirical results from experimental economics and neuroscience have uncovered regularities in human behavior that may provide a base for new approaches to welfare theory and economic policy. These empirical findings do not challenge basic economic concepts but they do imply that our assumptions about “rational behavior”, “opportunity cost”, and “s...

Science in the 21st century does not consider participants' welfare, safety and human rights in clinical studies, but modern science puts economic profits in its priority. This leads to a growing concern about social responsibility and professionalism ethics of companies, sponsors and scientists. Specifically, there is no way to control conflicts of participants' welfare with economic profits, ...

Abstract:Oil is undoubtedly the most important, and at the same time, the most politico-economic commodity in today’s world. As the most important source of economic and political power, oil has constantly played a significant role for Iranian governments both before and after the revolution [1979], and has served as a major fuel for their economic power. However, historical experience in...

We analyze a conservative market model for the competition among economic agents in a close society. A minimum dynamics ensures that the poorest agent has a chance to improve its economic welfare. After a transient, the system self-organizes into a critical state where the wealth distribution have a minimum threshold, with almost no agent below this poverty line, also, very few extremely rich a...

By definition, “consequentialist” behaviour in finite decision trees is explicable by its consequences. Both cost-benefit tests and “consequentialist” choices of economic policy necessarily require distributional judgements. These should emerge from a social welfare objective incorporating interpersonal comparisons. To accommodate them, Arrow’s IIA condition should be weakened to independence o...

I study the long-run economic effects of a policy of deporting undocumented immigrants. To evaluate such a policy, I develop a dynamic spatial growth model featuring migration, endogenous innovation, and economic geography. Using this framework, I simulate various deportation policy scenarios for the United States and quantify gains and losses in welfare and real wages, both in the aggregate an...

Health and education are both components of human capital and contributors to human welfare. One index of human welfare, which incorporates income, education and health, shows that Africa’s level of ‘human development’ is the lowest of any region in the world. In this paper we will frequently compare Africa with South Asia. While Africa’s level of human development is lower than that of South A...