Democratic decentralization in the state of West Bengal, of its own, are not producing systems that are more effective or more accountable to local needs and interests. The formal mechanisms matter less than the informal institutions that underpin local political economies. And the understanding...

We study the economic structure of the life of Harry Potter and his co-actors as an economic model that governs the social organization of their economic activities. Our goal is to study and understand the internal consistency of the Potterian economic model and explore the relationships between...

This paper models a dynamic scholar’s allocation of time between academia and professional activities outside academia, given the academic labor market and social interactions. The model shows how particularly in less developed countries business and political networks may have large negative...

This paper assesses the determinants of state fragility in sub-Saharan Africa using hitherto unexplored variables in the literature. The previously missing dimension of nation building is integrated and the hypothesis of state fragility being a function of rent seeking and/or lobbying by de...

This article draws a parallel between rentier capitalism and what the author calls rentier developmentalism. This refers to the growing influence of rent seeking or DInRT sectors: Distribution, ICTn (that are non-tradable), Restaurant and Transportation & storage. Similar to rentier capitalism...

We find the optimal capital income tax rate in an imperfectly competitive economy, where some part of recourses is devoted to rent-seeking activity. Optimal tax offsets the difference between marginal social and marginal private return to capital, which is a result of rent seeking, and the...