The Economic Foundations of Institutional Stagnation in Commodity-Exporting Countries

Many poor countries are plagued with growth-impeding institutions. We develop a three-sector general equilibrium model linking economic stagnation in these countries to poor export terms of trade. We examine the extent to which changes in the terms of trade affect private agents’ incentive to coalesce to oppose the adoption of growth-promoting institutions. We show that under certain conditions, below a threshold terms of trade level, private agents gain from coalescing to oppose the adoption of growth-promoting institutions. Above this threshold, gains from coalescing disappear, fostering institutional change.Terms of trade, primary commodities, institutions, general equilibrium

Trois essais sur les institutions et le développement

Cette thèse comprend trois (3) essais sur les institutions et le développement. Le premier essai intitulé «Mobile Getting Priees Right: Mobile Phone Diffusion, Externalities and Inequality», explore l'effet informationnel de l'utilisation du téléphone portable par les agriculteurs sur l'efficacité du marché, le bien-être et les inégalités. Dans cet essai, nous proposons un cadre unificateur pour analyser les impacts positifs et négatifs de la diffusion des téléphones potables sur le fonctionnement des marchés agricoles dans les économies en développement. Nous étudions la diffusion asymétrique des téléphones dans un modèle d'arbitrage spatial entre deux marchés voisins. Nous montrons que l'adoption des téléphones a des fortes implications distributionnelles. En particulier, une augmentation exogène de l'adoption des téléphones dans un marché génère trois types d'externalités: une externalité négative inter-marchés, une externalité positive intra-marché sur les producteurs non-informés et une externalité négative intra-marché sur les producteurs informés. La diffusion des téléphones peut aussi aggraver les inégalités liées à la production. Les résultats restent robustes, sous certaines conditions, lorsque la décision d'acheter le téléphone est endogène. Le deuxième essai intitulé «Mobile Phones and Political Evolution in Africa», examine l'effet de la diffusion des téléphones portables sur le régime politique et le changement institutionnel en Afrique. Les événements récents dans les pays arabes nous ont montré le rôle que joue les nouvelles technologies de l'information et de communication comme l'internet et le téléphone portable pour faciliter la mobilisation et la coordination des activités de contestation populaire. Dans cet essai, nous menons une exploration systématique des effets potentiels de la diffusion des téléphones portables sur le régime politique et le changement institutionnel dans les pays africains. Nous utilisons des données de panel de 47 pays africains pour examiner si l'émergence des téléphones portables est associée à une augmentation de la responsabilité de l'État vis-à-vis de ses citoyens. Nous trouvons une corrélation positive forte entre l'adoption des téléphones et les libertés civiles et une absence de corrélation avec les droits politiques. Ainsi, les pays avec plus de téléphones ont plus de liberté civile, mais n'ont pas plus (ou moins) de droits politiques. Le troisième essai intitulé : «The Challenges to Agricultural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa», étudie comment les termes de l'échange affectent la transformation du secteur agricole en Afrique sub-saharienne. Nous explorons le mécanisme à travers le fonctionnement du marché des intrants nécessaires à l'amélioration des rendements agricoles. Nous relions le fonctionnement de ce marché à l'économie politique de l'institution qui l'organise. Nous associons cette économie politique à l'intérêt de l'élite dans la sécurisation des droits de monopole sur l'offre des intrants agricoles, et de l'intégrer dans un modèle d'équilibre général à deux secteurs d'une petite économie agraire ouverte. Nous montrons que de mauvais termes de l'échange accroissent la capacité de l'élite de sécuriser les droits de monopole, provoquant ainsi l'inefficacité du marché du secteur intermédiaire des intrants agricoles. Nous concluons que l'amélioration des termes de l'échange agricole peut être un défi important pour la transformation des. pratiques agricoles en Afrique subsaharienne

The Economic Foundations of Institutional Stagnation in Commodity-Exporting Countries

Many poor countries are plagued with growth-impeding institutions. We develop a three-sector general equilibrium model linking economic stagnation in these countries to poor export terms of trade. We examine the extent to which changes in the terms of trade affect private agents’ incentive to coalesce to oppose the adoption of growth-promoting institutions. We show that under certain conditions, below a threshold terms of trade level, private agents gain from coalescing to oppose the adoption of growth-promoting institutions. Above this threshold, gains from coalescing disappear, fostering institutional change

Spatial Poverty in Benin: Human Capital, Isolation and Governance

Benin has witnessed significant economic growth over the past decades, positioning itself as a rising economy in the west African subregion. This notwithstanding, persistent subnational differences in poverty were observed, suggesting a challenge of growth inclusiveness. This study provides evidence on the effects of human capital differences, isolation, and institutional quality on the determinants of household expenditure and factors that explain the southern-northern welfare gaps. This study employs a decomposition technique based on re-centred influence functions. I find significant spatial differences in consumption expenditure at the mean and across selected quantiles, with an increasing gap along welfare distribution and driven largely by differences in the returns to households’ endowments in social public infrastructure. Access to energy and human capital measured by the education level of the head of the household generally favours the rich in the leading region and contributed significantly to explaining the difference in the welfare gap. The difference in access to roads widens the gap for the poor, whereas governance quality at the local level reduces it. To reduce the poverty gap, a public policy to improve returns of household endowments in the social sector should be integrated with other initiatives to address the underlying determinants of inequalities.</p

Dynamics of monetary and multidimensional poverty in Cameroon

Cameroon has witnessed substantial economic growth in the new millennium, while pov- erty reduction has been limited and inequality has worsened. In this context, this paper in- vestigates the different facets of poverty in Cameroon, the factors affecting them, and policy options to tackle poverty and achieve inclusive and sustainable development. We apply two prominent poverty measurement methods (Alkire–Foster and Foster–Greer–Thorbecke) to a series of household consumption and living standards (ECAM) surveys and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) collected between 2001 and 2018, and perform various empirical analyses to elucidate poverty dynamics and features. Our results indicate that both mone- tary and multidimensional poverty decreased in Cameroon between 2001 and 2018, albeit slowly and to varying degrees across the different demographic, socio-economic, and spatial groups of the population. We find that the proportion of multidimensional poor people was always higher than the proportion of the monetary poor. At the same time, multidimen- sional poverty has reduced much faster than monetary poverty at the national level. Lastly, we find that higher levels of poverty in Cameroon are strongly associated with rural liveli- hoods, large family size, less education, employment in agriculture, and the northern regions of the country. Our microeconomic analysis is complemented with a review of structural factors affecting poverty at the macro level. We point out the need to accelerate the struc- tural transformation of the Cameroonian economy to reduce inequalities across the different regions and subgroups of the population and expand economic opportunities for the youth to achieve the demographic dividend

Monetary and Multidimensional Poverty in Cameroon: Measurements, Determinants, and Policy Implications

Abstract Cameroon has witnessed substantial economic growth in the new millennium, while poverty reduction has been limited and inequality has worsened. In this context, this chapter investigates the different facets of poverty in Cameroon, factors affecting them and policy options to tackle poverty and achieve inclusive and sustainable development. We apply two prominent poverty measurement methods (Alkire-Foster and Foster-Greer-Thorbecke) to a series of household consumption and living standards (ECAM) surveys and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) collected between 2001 and 2018, and perform various empirical analyses to elucidate poverty dynamics and features. Our results indicate that both monetary and multidimensional poverty have decreased in Cameroon between 2001 and 2018, albeit slowly and to varying degrees across the different demographic, socioeconomic and spatial groups of the population. We find that the proportion of multidimensional poor people is always higher than the proportion of the monetary poor. At the same time, multidimensional poverty has reduced much faster than monetary poverty at the national level. Lastly, we find that higher levels of poverty in Cameroon are strongly associated with rural livelihoods, large family size, less education, employment in agriculture and the Northern regions of the country. Our micro-economic analysis is complemented with a review of structural factors affecting poverty at the macro level. We point out the need to accelerate the structural transformation of the Cameroonian economy, to reduce inequalities across the different regions and sub-groups of the population and expand economic opportunities for the youth to achieve the demographic dividend.</jats:p