does not mean similarity in the basic nature of the academic discipline. the fundamental difference between physics and economics is that physics deals with the physical universe which is governed by immutable laws, beyond the pale of human behaviour. economics, in contrast, is a social science whose laws are influenced by human behaviour. simply put, i cannot change the mass of an electron no matter how i behave but i can change the price of a derivative by my behaviour. 13. the laws of physics are universal in space and time. the laws of economics are very much a function of the context. going back to the earlier example, the mass of an electron does not change whether we are in the world of newton or of einstein. but in the world of economics, how firms, households and governments behave is altered by the reigning economic ideology of the time. to give another example, there is nothing absolute, for example, about savings being equal to investment or supply equaling demand as maintained by classical economics but there is something absolute about energy lost being equal to energy gained as enunciated by classical physics. 14. in natural sciences, progress is a two way street. it can run from empirical findings to theory or the other way round. the famous michelson - morley experiment that found that the velocity of light is constant led to the theory of relativity – an example of progression from practice to theory. in the reverse direction, the ferocious search now under way for the higgs boson – the god particle – which has been predicted by quantum theory is an example of traversing from theory to practice. in economics, on the other hand, where the human dimension is paramount, the progression has necessarily to be one way, from empirical finding to theory. there is a joke that if something works in practice, economists run to see if it works in theory. actually, i don ’ t see the joke ; that is indeed the way it should be. 15. karl popper, by far the most influential philosopher of science of the twentieth century, propounded that a good theory is one that gives rise to falsifiable hypotheses. by this measure, einstein ’ s general theory was a good theory as it led to the hypothesis about the curvature of space under the force of gravity which indeed was verified by scientists from observations made during a solar eclipse from the west african islands of sao tome and principe. economics on the other hand cannot stand the scrutiny of the falsifiable hypothesis test

much impact to the end user. this includes through the geopolitical risk program under the council of financial regulators, and in the case of apra, through cps 230. rba ( 2024 ), ‘ merchant card payment costs and surcharging – issues paper ’, october. this could include having only interchange caps instead of both caps and benchmarks, removing ad valorem interchange caps and benchmarks ( so that they are solely cents - based ), or limiting the number of interchange categories. this includes the impact of other service costs being bundled into the surcharge that is passed onto consumers. financial stability board ( 2024 ), ‘ annual progress report on meeting the targets for cross - border payments : 2024 report on key performance indicators ’, 21 october. the financial stability board has, for the purposes of its targets, defined remittances as low value, high volume payments primarily sent to recipients in emerging market and developing economies. retail payments are all other payments under us $ 100, 000. this task has been helped by recent updates to the guidance from the australian competition and consumer commission on how international money providers can improve the transparency of these services. this included guidance around how international money providers should display information to consumers, requiring standardised illustration of costs and other service features, such as the time it will take for the recipient to receive the funds. see accc ( 2024 ), ‘ best practice guidance for foreign cash and international money transfer services ’, october. for instance, the rba is working to ensure that the australian industry adopts the globally harmonised iso 20022 messaging requirements for cross - border payments. work is underway to plan the npp ’ s adoption of globally harmonised iso 20022 messaging, and we expect industry to have adopted the globally harmonised iso 20022 messaging requirements for high - value and fast payments by the end of 2027. see bis innovation hub ( 2024 ), ‘ project mandala : streamlining cross - border transaction compliance ’. for the paper, see here : rba and treasury ( 2024 ), ‘ central bank digital currency and the future of digital money in australia ’, september. see also jones b ( 2024 ), ‘ financial innovation and the future of cbdc in australia ’, speech at the intersekt conference, melbourne, 18 september. rba ( 2024 ), ‘ rba and dfcrc joint consultation paper project acacia – exploring the role of digital money