Articles by D S Tyagi

Inter-Sectoral Terms of Trade Misconceptions and Fairy Tales D S Tyagi SCIENCE'S main business is discovery of truths about the world. Truth states facts. All scientific concepts whether they be physical, psychological or sociological, must be defined in terms of observable characters.' In other words the statement of an empirical science must be confirmable by observation. Tferms of trade is an empirical concept. Recognising that the validity of crucial constructs relating to class relations conceived by Mitra2 was dependent on an observable phenomenon, namely that the terms of trade have moved in favour of agriculture, 1 have raised doubts regarding the veracity of this statement on methodological grounds.3 Later on we have argued that since the term terms of trade implies a comparison of prices at which the trade has taken place between the two sectors,4 the degree of accuracy of the estimates of terms of trade obviously depends upon: (a) the comprehensiveness of the identified pattern of trade, (b) the reliability of weights used for constructing the price indices in reflecting truly the share of different items in the total trade between the two sectors, (c) the capacity of selected price/price indicators to truly reflect changes in prices paid by the two sectors for purchases made from other sectors.

On the Relevance of Farm Prices D S Tyagi RECENT trends in empirical research have led some to conclude that "researchers have reached a point of sharply diminishing returns".1 While this observation may continue to be debated in the profession, a plausible explanation for the emergence of such feelings could be the shift in emphasis from methodology to results. The basics of empirical research, namely, the quality, i e, reliability, representativeness and suitability of the basic data and consistency of the economic point of view translated into equations both with common knowledge and economic logic, now seem to be at a discount. The trend is, collect some data from any source, feed these into a computer, get results adopting a sophisticated model and even if the results, obtained are prima facie funny do not waste time on checking the assumptions of the model, the quality of data, the suitability of tool and the consistency of results with basic economic logic but go ahead and give policy prescriptions. Recognising the damage such exercises are likely to do to economic policy decisionmaking or to the proper appraisal of policy decisions, their limitations need to be highlighted. This paper aims at illuminating the limitations of such exercises.

A S Kahlon D S Tyagi The debate on inter-sectoral terms of trade has of late shifted to the concrete question of whether unfavourable terms of trade have contributed to the depressed growth of the Indian agricultural sector. Some scholars hold the view that farm prices have been systematically and, perhaps, deliberately kept down while others believe that various incentives have pushed agricultural prices disproportionately upward.