Economic integration in the lower Congo region : opening the Kinshasa-Brazzaville bottleneck

This working paper assesses cross-border economic integration in the Lower Congo region. It focuses on the Kinshasa-Brazzaville conurbation, which is projected to become Africa's largest urban area by 2025, and is already serving as the gateway to large hinterlands. Despite their size and proximity, formal economic exchanges between the two cities are extremely limited. The volume of recorded passenger travel between Kinshasa and Brazzaville corresponds to about one-fifth of the volume of traffic between East and West Berlin during the time of the Berlin Wall, and formal trade volumes are derisorily small. As a consequence, the authors find evidence of statistically significant differences in retail prices, indicating unexploited scope for cross-river arbitrage. Through a survey of firms, they find that local traders perceive substantial scope for increasing cross-border economic activity if cross-river trade costs were reduced. Trade in locally produced goods and by small firms would especially benefit from such reductions. Existing high trade costs mainly result from a lack of competition in cross-river transport services, which are dominated by a duopoly of state-controlled operators. High administrative border costs, exacerbated by the presence of multiple government agencies at the border, act as a further obstacle. Liberalization of cross-river transport and customs reform could yield large economic benefits for local producers and consumers.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Economic Theory&Research,Emerging Markets,Trade Law,Free Trade

La boîte aux lettres du Mousquetaire, journal d'Alexandre Dumas (1853-1857)

International audienceDans le débat complexe suscité par les rapports entre la lettre et la presse au XIXe siècle, on trouve souvent exprimée l'idée que le journal, forme nouvelle de la circulation des idées et des discours dans l'espace public, a rendu obsolète la lettre, qui constituait l'un des piliers les plus solides de la communication salonnière dans la société d'ancien régime. S'il est indéniable que, dans le dernier quart du XIXe siècle, la transmission des nouvelles et la publication des idées se fait directement dans la grande presse d'information, sans l'intermédiaire de l'épistolaire, le constat doit cependant être nuancé pour les décennies précédentes et pour la petite presse. Pendant presque tout le siècle, les petites feuilles périodiques ont prolongé la sociabilité salonnière ou cénaculaire bien plus qu'elles ne l'ont remplacée, par l'usage massif qu'elles font des lettres, qu'il s'agisse de lettres authentiques publiées dans les colonnes du journal ou d'articles rédigés sous forme épistolaire. Je souhaiterais mettre cette hypothèse à l'épreuve de l'étude d'un cas, celui du petit journal quotidien d'actualité littéraire et artistique dirigé par Alexandre Dumas entre 1853 et 1857, Le Mousquetaire. Cette feuille, typique de la presse des personnalités sous l'Empire autoritaire, permet de saisir de façon précise la nature de l'échange épistolaire par voie de presse, à travers la rubrique " Correspondance ", qui est pour une grande part consacrée aux lettres de lecteurs, célèbres ou anonymes, et aux réponses que leur adresse Dumas par la voie du journal, mais aussi à travers les lettres insérées dans les causeries du directeur, publiées en tête de la plupart des numéros

Die Zeitschriften für den neusprachlichen Unterricht in Frankreich und Deutschland um 1900: Die Fabrik einer öffentlichen Meinung der Lehrerschaft

Autour de 1900, deux revues pédagogiques en France (la Revue de l’Enseignement des Langues vivantes et Les Langues modernes) et une en Allemagne (Die Neueren Sprachen) jouent pour l’enseignement des langues vivantes le rôle de tribune, avec l’objectif de constituer une opinion publique du corps enseignant en langues vivantes et une "doctrine" scientifique de leur discipline. Dans une période où l’enseignement des langues est affecté par des réformes successives et fait l’objet de débats dans la société, la stratégie de ces revues est, selon les circonstances, défensive ou offensive. Notre contribution se propose d’analyser les revues dans leur contexte et les modalités de la circulation entre elles, compte tenu des jeux d’échelles qui les déterminent. (DIPF/Orig.)Drei pädagogische Zeitschriften widmeten sich um 1900 in Frankreich und Deutschland dem neusprachlichen Unterricht: die Revue de l’Enseignement des Langues vivantes, die Langues modernes und Die Neueren Sprachen. Sie fungierten als Forum mit dem Ziel, zur Herausbildung einer öffentlichen Meinung der Fremdsprachenlehrer beizutragen und die wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen des Faches zu schaffen. Da der neusprachliche Unterricht zu jener Zeit für reformbedürftig gehalten wurde und in der Öffentlichkeit zur Debatte stand, verfolgten sie je nach Konjunktur eine abwehrende oder offensive Strategie. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht den Kontext der Zeitschriften und das Rezeptionsverfahren zwischen ihnen unter Berücksichtigung der jeweiligen Determinanten. (DIPF/Orig.

The Impact of education and mismatch on wages: Germany, 1984-2000

In analysing the impact of education on wage differentials and wage growth, we use next to personal characteristics (e. g. education and experience) also jobcharacteristics (e. g. skills required) to explain wages. We estimate wage equations on individual data for Germany, 1984 – 2000. When discussing observed andpreviously unobserved heterogeneity it turns out that personal characteristics like education and experience explain about half of the variation in wages. At least 20 per cent is explained by variation in job characteristics. When comparing the results with similar research for the Netherlands an the USA, the returns toexperience are the same in all countries, while the premiums on required skills and in particular education are much higher in the USA.labour economics ;

Clothing and export diversification : still a route to growth for low-income countries ?

Can the clothing sector be a driver of export diversification and growth for today's low-income countries as it was in the past for countries that have graduated into middle income? This paper assesses this issue taking into account key changes to the market for clothing: the emergence of India and especially China as exporting countries; the rise of global production chains; the removal of quotas from the global trading regime but the continued presence of high tariffs and substantial trade preferences; the increasing importance of large buyers in developed countries and their concerns regarding risk and reputation; and the increasing importance of time in defining sourcing decisions. To assess the importance of the factors shaping the global clothing market, the authors estimate a gravity model to explain jointly the propensity to export clothing and the magnitude of exports from developing countries to the E U and US markets. This analysis identifies the quality of governance as an important determinant of sourcing decisions and that there appears to be a general bias against sourcing apparel from African countries, which is only partially overcome by trade preferences.Economic Theory&Research,Free Trade,Trade Policy,Emerging Markets,Transport Economics Policy&Planning

The African Growth and Opportunity Act, exports, and development in Sub-Saharan Africa

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is the flagship of U.S. commercial and development policy with Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper looks at the impact of the trade preferences that are the central element of AGOA on African countries'exports to the U.S. and puts them in the perspective of the development of the region. The paper finds that, while stimulating export diversification in a few countries, AGOA has fallen short of the potential impetus that preferences could otherwise provide African exporters. The impact of AGOA would beenhanced if preferences were extended to all products. This means removing tariff barriers to a range of agricultural products and to textiles and a number of other manufactured goods. There also needs to be a fundamental change in approach to the rules of origin. Given the stage of development and economic size of Sub-Saharan Africa, nonrestrictive rules of origin are crucial. For all countries in Africa, those that have and those that have not benefited from preferences, there are enormous infrastructure weaknesses and often extremely poor policy environments that raise trade costs and push African producers further away from international markets. Effective trade preferences (those with nonrestrictive rules of origin) can provide a limited window of opportunity to exports while these key barriers to trade are addressed. But dealing with the barriers is the priority.Free Trade,Economic Theory&Research,Trade Policy,Agribusiness&Markets,Markets and Market Access

Economic partnership agreements and the export competitiveness of Africa

Trade can be a key driver of growth for African countries, as it has been for those countries, particularly in East Asia, that have experienced high and sustained rates of growth. Economic partnership agreements with the European Union could be instrumental in a competitiveness framework, but to do so they would have to be designed carefully in a way that supports integration into the global economy and is consistent with national development strategies. Interim agreements have focused on reciprocal tariff removal and less restrictive rules of origin. To be fully effective, economic partnership agreements will have to address constraints to regional integration, including both tariff and non-tariff barriers; improve trade facilitation; and define appropriate most favored nation services liberalization. At the same time, African countries will need to reduce external tariff peak barriers on a most favored nation basis to ensure that when preferences for the European Union are implemented after transitional periods, they do not lead to substantial losses from trade diversion. This entails an ambitious agenda of policy reform that must be backed up by development assistance in the form of"aid for trade."Economic Theory&Research,Free Trade,Emerging Markets,Trade Policy,Trade Law

Maupassant, le journal et les filles

Actes du colloque "Presse, prostitution, bas-fonds dans l'espace médiatique francophone, 1830-1930", organisé par Guillaume Pinson, Université Laval (Québec)International audienceDès la publication, en 1880, de " Boule de suif " dans Les Soirées de Médan, qui lança sa carrière de conteur et jusqu'à ses derniers récits brefs, Maupassant n'a cessé de revendiquer ce qu'il appelle la " bas-fondmanie " et, en particulier, de peindre l'univers prostitutionnel sous toutes ses formes. " La Maison Tellier ", " Les sœurs Rondoli ", " Yvette " et bien d'autres fictions brèves témoignent de l'intérêt constant de l'écrivain pour les " filles ". Or ces nouvelles, pour l'immense majorité publiées dans la presse, alternent dans les colonnes des journaux (Le Gaulois, Le Gil Blas, L'Écho de Paris, etc.) avec les chroniques que Maupassant publie à la même époque dans les mêmes feuilles et puisent leur inspiration dans les faits divers et le discours journalistique contemporain

Technology Transfer Through Trade

This paper examines the role that trade plays in economic development through the channel of technology transfer, approximated by total factor productivity. Three strains of factors influence the process of technology transfer; direct effort that is taken to transfer technologies, the capacity to adopt technologies, and differences in the underlying conditions between donor- and receiving countries. In this context, trade in (capital) goods allows technology import and improved input decisions. Second, trade opens export markets, allowing learning-by-doing. Third and most importantly, trade increases the set of accessible technologies, increasing the scope for imitation. The theoretical insights are compared to the empirical literature that deals with trade and technology transfer. Not surprisingly, it turns out that openness and human capital have a positive influence on the transfer of technology. Yet methodological problems with the data weaken the practical significance of the results, especially as the precise and fundamental mechanism of spillovers and the factors that condition the degree of technology transfer are not profoundly illuminated. These underlying processes have to be better understood in order to be able to give valuable policy recommendations that will go beyond the general advice of increasing openness and human capital formation.Technology transfer, Trade, Economic growth, Total factor productivity

Vittorio Frigerio, Dumas l’irrégulier

Romancier, professeur de littérature française à Dalhousie University et éditeur de la revue en ligne Belphégor (http://etc.dal.ca/belphegor/), Vittorio Frigerio propose dans ce volume un riche ensemble d’études sur Alexandre Dumas, composé d’articles révisés et d’inédits. Son ambition, clairement formulée dans l’introduction et la conclusion, est de contribuer à faire sortir Dumas des jugements à l’emporte-pièce, qui tour à tour le sacrent romancier de génie ou dénoncent un faiseur privé de ..