Response to Gangadhar Darbha

Dr. Gangadhar Darbha tragically expired a few weeks prior to the completion of my response to his comments. I have known him for the last two decades as an extremely intelligent and incisive scholar with deep interests in economic theory as well as their policy fall-outs. In his death the profession has lost an economist of great potential and those of us who knew him personally have lost a warm and wonderfully generous friend.

A part of the responses below was prepared after Gangadhar’s demise. However in the interest of honest academic debate, I have discussed the issues raised by him purely on their merit, distancing them appropriately from my personal sorrow at his premature departure.