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Ce texte est le récit concret de plus de vingt ans d'existence d'une association fondée dans le but de sauver le plus de souvenirs possible de l'activité sportive d'une ville provinciale française de taille moyenne. Nous y exposons les difficultés que nous avons rencontrées dans cette entreprise « d'ethnologie de sauvetage ». Nous n'avons pas atteint l'exhaustivité que nous visions au départ. Nous sommes cependant parvenus à rassembler, classer, conserver et exposer des objets de mémoires très fragiles qui auraient été, sans notre intervention, voués à la dispersion et à l'oubli. Notre Conservatoire du Patrimoine Sportif contient désormais les traces d'un passé sportifs porteur des marques subtiles de l'identité culturelle locale. Nous espérons que l'exposé de notre expérience pourra être utile à ceux qui souhaiteraient se lancer dans une entreprise similaire. De la confrontations de nombreuses petites structures similaires pourraient naitre des pistes intéressantes d'ethnologie comparative.

This article investigates empirically whether the effect of tax reform (involving the progressive replacement of trade tax revenue with domestic tax revenue) in developing countries' tax revenue performance (measured by tax revenue‐to‐GDP ratio) depends on the degree of trade openness of these countries. The analysis has used an unbalanced panel data set of 95 developing countries over the period 1981–2015 and the two‐system GMM approach. Results suggest that tax reform is positively and significantly associated with tax revenue performance in developing countries, with the magnitude of this positive effect increasing as countries experience a higher development level. Additionally, and more importantly, countries that further open up their economies to international trade enjoy a higher positive effect of tax reform on tax revenue than countries that experience a lower degree of trade openness. Therefore, these findings should help dissipate the concerns of policymakers in developing countries that greater openness to international trade would further erode their tax revenue, including by lowering their international trade tax revenue. In fact, the implementation of an appropriate tax reform in the context of greater trade openness would generate higher tax revenue, while concurrently allowing countries to reap the well‐known benefits of international trade.

This paper examines the relationship between tax transition reform, development aid volatility, and public revenue instability in developing countries. Empirical findings show that tax reform exerts a negative effect on tax revenue instability, and the magnitude of this negative effect diminishes as the degree of development aid volatility increases. Specifically, beyond a certain level of development aid volatility, tax reform enhances tax revenue instability. Overall, these findings suggest that higher development aid flows to developing countries should be accompanied by a lower aid volatility so as to ensure that tax reform would generate lower tax revenue instability in recipient countries. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper investigates empirically the effect of tax reform on fiscal space in developing countries. The analysis has used an unbalanced panel dataset comprising 99 developing countries (of which 37 Least developed countries—LDCs) over the period 1980–2015. It has shown empirical evidence that tax reform is associated with greater fiscal space in developing countries, with this positive impact being particularly higher for LDCs than for the set of other countries in the full sample. Furthermore, the higher the degree of openness to international trade, the greater is the positive effect of tax reform on fiscal space. In light of the importance of securing greater fiscal space to finance development needs, policymakers in developing countries should pursue their tax reform in the context of greater trade openness, notably with the assistance of both bilateral partners (developed countries) and relevant international institutions.

Le partage de l’eau abordé dans cet article se concentre principalement sur le système Durance-Verdon alimentant directement la concession régionale de la Société du Canal de Provence. Ces rivières constituent également les principales ressources en eau superficielles de la Provence. Le système est composé d’infrastructures hydrauliques importantes : d’abord de stockage sur la Durance amont (Serre-Ponçon) et sur le Verdon amont (Castillon et Sainte-Croix), ensuite de transfert vers le reste de la Région, notamment sur les zones littorales méditerranéennes fortement peuplées. Les grandes retenues en amont du bassin sont en grande partie sous la concession d’EDF, la SCP étant concessionnaire du canal de Provence, dont les ressources en eau sont principalement issues du Verdon. La SCP a la responsabilité de l’acheminement et de la distribution des eaux dans toute la Région PACA jusque dans les Alpes-Maritimes. Dans sa gestion quotidienne de la ressource en eau, la SCP veille à une gestion rationnelle de la ressource et est tournée vers l’économie d’eau afin de se prémunir au mieux du changement climatique et de ses incertitudes.

Empirical studies usually analyse the relationship between an economy’s trade sector and tax revenue in developing countries through the e"ect of trade liberalization on tax revenue. This paper takes a di"erent angle by examining the impact of export upgrading strategies (export diversi#cation and improvement in export quality) on non-resource tax revenue. The panel data-set covers a sample of 172 countries, including both developed and developing countries, spanning the period 1980–2010. The analysis is conducted both on the entire sample and sub-samples. The #ndings indicate that export product upgrading exerts a positive and signi#cant e"ect on non-resource tax revenue, including for the sub-samples considered, with the exception of low-income countries for which we observe mixed results. Moreover, countries which upgrade their export products in a context of trade openness consistently experience higher non-resource tax revenue, both in the short and long term.

International audience; This paper investigates second wave tax transition (transfer of tax pressure from border taxation towards domestic taxation) concerns in developing countries. It essentially focuses on the compensation effects of incomes and property taxes over international trade tax revenue losses in developing countries. Using a generalized method of moment estimator, we come to the evidence that, incomes and property taxes are poor instruments to balance trade tax revenue losses of trade liberalization in these countries. However, a mediating effect of financial development in the compensation nexus driven by corporate income taxes was found. We explain this result by the fact that the use of financial sector generates paper trails to government in order to enforce and raise corporate income taxes. Financial development may progressively crowd-out informal sector and leads to business formalization. Surprising, we do not find any mediating effect of financial development in the compensation patterns with personal income taxes. Nevertheless, some heterogeneities were discovered. Financial development mediates the compensation patterns of personal income taxes in Latin American countries, while the effect holds on corporate income taxes in African countries. We conclude the paper by highlighting the important role of financial development in second generation tax transition concerns over developing countries.

This paper contributes to the public finance literature that examines the impact of foreign aid on government revenue by assessing whether the impact of development aid (if any at all) on government revenue, including non-resource tax revenue is sustainable. The study is carried out over a panel dataset comprising 148 countries of which 40 Least developed countries (LDCs) and over the period 1980–2013 as well as the sub-period 1990–2013. The empirical results show that the sustainability of development aid on non-resource tax revenue depends on countries’ level of economic development proxied by their real per capita income. In particular, for LDCs, we obtain that on average, half of the impact of development aid inflows is felt within a very short time-period, that is, two or three years depending on the period considered. This indicates that for these countries, the impact of aid on non-resource tax revenue is yet positive, but not really sustainable, i.e., persistent over time.

Trade has been recognized in the 2030 development Agenda as well as in the Addis Ababa Agenda for Action as an important means for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper questions whether trade openness could be an important driver of financing for development flows, notably development aid (ODA), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows, and government public revenue, the latter being the ultimate financing source for development for any country. The paper also takes advantage of the framework of analysis to investigate the interplay between these three types of financial flows. Relying on an unbalanced panel dataset comprising 125 countries, of which 37 are Least Developed Countries (LDCs), the empirical analysis uses the three stage least squares econometric approach and provides two important pieces of evidence: first, international trade openness is an important tool for driving financial flows for development, including government public revenue, development aid and FDI. As a result, it could contribute to mobilizing the substantial financial resources needed for development, including for the implementation of the SDGs. Second, there are strong interactions (complementarity and substitutability) between these three types of financing for development flows.

Le 1er janvier 1849, le premier timbre-poste voit officiellement le jour en France. Cette decision prise par un decret-loi du 24 d’aout 1848 precipite l’administration des finances dont depend alors l’administration des Postes pour organiser un nouveau service, adopter un dessin, trouver un graveur pour realiser la gravure du poincon mais, avant tout, pour creer un atelier qui n’existait pas jusque-la. Pour assurer cette impression en grand nombre, la fabrication est placee sous le controle d...

This analysis uses panel data from thirty-five departments over the period 2001-2011 to analyse the effect of grants from central government on local revenue mobilisation in Cote d’Ivoire. The study considers the two components of local own revenue in Cote d’Ivoire: tax revenue (LTR) and non-tax revenue (LNTR). To perform the investigation, the analysis is based on a carefully-constructed novel dataset, and very recent and appropriate econometric estimators (Grouped Fixed Effects (GFE)). The GFE method assumes that unobserved heterogeneity can be constant and/or varying over time among individual departments. We combine this method with Instrumental Variable (IV) regressions in a two-stage least squares procedure to control for endogeneity of grants. Overall, the results show a statistically significant and positive effect of central grants on local mobilisation of tax and non-tax revenue. Thus, the study finds that central grants to municipalities do not displace local revenue, but instead lead to higher revenue. However, the effect on tax revenue is more important than that on non-tax revenue. A 10 per cent increase in total grants to local government is associated with a 4.1 per cent increase in tax revenue mobilised by local administration, while increasing non-tax revenue by only 1.8 per cent. We also find that, although conflict has a negative impact on mobilisation of local revenue, this impact remains generally limited. The conflict is not significant at 5 per cent statistical significance.

The supply of external financing to developing countries generally tends to increase in periods when export earnings are booming and thus, in periods of increasing government revenues. Conversely, Stabex and IMF Compensatory Financing transfers are primarily designed to take place in response to a fall in export earnings, and thus, in periods when government revenues are decreasing. However, these transfers occur in an unsteady way with respect to the cycle of government revenues. When occurring in periods of decreasing government revenues, only Stabex transfers are used to finance additional primary expenditures (i.e. expenditures other than interest on public debt). This effect contrasts with the effects usually reported for other instruments of external financing. In periods of increasing government revenues, Stabex and Compensatory Financing transfers have no impact on fiscal deficit. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

ENG: price stabilization! volatility! price cycle! unit root tests with break! cotton!, Cet article montre que les producteurs de coton en Afrique de la zone franc font face à une instabilité croissante des prix alors que les conditions d'implantation de véritables systèmes d'assurance contre le risque ne sont toujours pas réunies. Il montre également, au travers de l'analyse des propriétés statistiques de la série des prix à l'exportation du coton, que ces prix sont stationnâmes autour d'une tendance segmentée, avec des fluctuations cycliques d'environ quatre ans. On en déduit une règle de stabilisation des prix dont on attend une amélioration du bien-être des producteurs et notamment des plus pauvres., Araujo Bonjean Catherine, Brun Jean-François. Les politiques de stabilisation des prix du coton en Afrique de la zone franc sont-elles condamnées?. In: Économie rurale. N°266, 2001. pp. 80-90.

Alors que traditionnellement l'offre de financement externe vis-a-vis des pays en developpement s'elargit plutot en periode de boom des recet tesd 'exportation et donc d'augmentation des recettes publiques, les transferts stabex ont vocation a intervenir principalement a la suite d'une chute des recettes d'exportation et par consequent durant une periode de baisse des recettes publiques. L 'article montre que ces trans ferts, intervenant dans une periode de baisse des ressources publiques, desserrent la contrainte sur les depenses et permettent une depense pri maire additionnelle. En revanche, en periode de hausse des ressources publiques, ces financements n'exercent aucun effet expansionniste et se substituent donc a d'autres sources de financement. Cet effet est con traire a celui generalement observe pour les autres apports financiers. Il constitue certainement un argument en faveur du maintien du stabex.

We are pleased to present the fourth in our new publication series, ICTD Research in Brief -- two-page summaries of our working papers edited to capture the main policy messages and aimed at policy makers, tax administrators, fellow researchers and anyone else who is big on interest and short on time. We hope you enjoy it. There is growing interest among development policymakers in taxation, both as a crucial source of revenue for development and because taxation is central to economic growth, redistribution and broader state-building and governance goals. This paper explores the direct impact of donor supported tax reform efforts; the indirect impact of aid and related donor policies on domestic tax effort; the potentially perverse effects of tax-related conditionality; and the impact of broader donor policies including global tax arrangements. It makes detailed recommendations about future donor support for tax reform.

There is a common perception among consumers that the retail prices respond faster to an increase in the price of raw material than to a decrease. This paper aims at testing the existence of such asymmetric price transmission in the cocoa-chocolate chain on the French market. Two types of asymmetry are suspected: asymmetry in the transmission of positive and negative shocks that may reflect non-competitive behaviour in the chocolate industry and asymmetry in the transmission of small and large shocks that may be due do adjustment costs. These hypotheses are tested using the two-step approach to cointegration of Engle and Granger extended to encompass possible asymmetric adjustment to disequilibrium. Estimates indicate that a three-regime error correction model is the most appropriate. On the one hand, the chocolate price does not adjust to small shocks in the cocoa market. On the other hand, the speed of adjustment is larger for negative deviations than for positive ones., There is a common perception among consumers that the retail prices respond faster to an increase in the price of raw material than to a decrease. This paper aims at testing the existence of such asymmetric price transmission in the cocoa-chocolate chain on the French market. Two types of asymmetry are suspected: asymmetry in the transmission of positive and negative shocks that may reflect non-competitive behaviour in the chocolate industry and asymmetry in the transmission of small and large shocks that may be due do adjustment costs. These hypotheses are tested using the two-step approach to cointegration of Engle and Granger extended to encompass possible asymmetric adjustment to disequilibrium. Estimates indicate that a three-regime error correction model is the most appropriate. On the one hand, the chocolate price does not adjust to small shocks in the cocoa market. On the other hand, the speed of adjustment is larger for negative deviations than for positive ones.Les consommateurs ont souvent l’impression que les prix de détail répondent plus vite aux augmentations du prix de la matière première qu’aux baisses. Aussi, l’objectif de ce travail est de tester l’existence d’une transmission asymétrique des fluctuations de prix entre la matière première, la fève de cacao, et le produit fini, la tablette de chocolat sur le marché français. Deux formes d’asymétrie, ayant chacune une origine différente, sont recherchées : d’une part, une asymétrie dans la transmission des chocs positifs et négatifs, potentiellement liée à l’exercice d’un pouvoir de marché des industriels, et d’autre part, une asymétrie dans la transmission des grands et des petits chocs de prix liée à la présence de coûts d’ajustement. Les résultats, obtenus à partir d’une modélisation TAR du déséquilibre de prix par rapport à leur valeur de long terme, ne permettent pas de rejeter ces hypothèses. Sur la plus grande partie de la période couverte (1960-2003) le prix de la fève et le prix de la tablette évoluent indépendamment l’un de l’autre. Toutefois, au moment du boom du cacao (fin 70) le prix de la tablette répond rapidement à la hausse des cours de la fève tandis qu’à la fin des années 80, alors que le prix de la fève est retombé à un bas niveau, le prix de la tablette revient lentement vers l’équilibre.

The sectors of coffee and cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire represented, before the political crisis, approximately 15% of the GDP and 40% of exports. The production zone of these two crops is the forest, which is a malaria endemic area. The cultivation of these crops is less constraining than that of the food crops such as rice or yam, which need to be replanted each year. However, the maintenance of the ground and trees and pest management are major tasks contributing to high yields. But, by increasing the work time in fields, they also expose farmers to mosquito bites and, as a consequence, to the risk of malaria. Farmers in this area also grow food crops, and more specifically rice, as rain cultivation crops, but some also cultivate these crops in irrigated lowland. The aim of this paper is twofold: first of all, to evaluate the role of malaria in coffee and cocoa production; secondly, to assess the role of the rice production scheme on malaria transmission. Three functions are therefore estimated: the production of coffee, the production of cocoa, and the production of health. Data were collected during a survey carried out on 750 households (21 villages) in the forest area. The main results show that malaria has no effect on coffee and cocoa production and that lowland irrigated rice cultivation does not constitute a risk factor for malaria transmission. JEL Classification: I12, O13.

This paper is based on Prebisch and Singer’s work on the deterioration in the terms of trade of developing economies. Using a game-theory model, we can explain the decline in the cocoa-bean price relative to the price of chocolate bars in the French market. One implication of the model is that the price of the raw material and the price of the end product depend respectively on the market power of the main world producer, Côte d’Ivoire, and of the manufacturers. We use an equation system to test for this market power. The results lead us to distinguish two modes of price formation. In the period 1960-1985, Côte d’Ivoire played a dominant role. Market power then gradually shifted from the country to the manufacturers., Ce travail s’inscrit dans le prolongement des travaux de Prebisch et Singer sur la dégradation des termes de l'échange des pays en développement. Un modèle de théorie des jeux visant à expliquer la détérioration du prix de la fève de cacao par rapport à celui de la tablette de chocolat observée sur le marché français, est proposé. Une implication du modèle est que les prix de la matière première et du produit fini dépendent du pouvoir de marché respectif du principal producteur mondial, la Côte d’Ivoire, et des industriels du cacao. Il en découle un système d’équations permettant de tester le pouvoir de marché de la Côte et des industriels. Les résultats économétriques amènent à distinguer deux régimes de formation des prix. Dans la période 1960 – 1985, la Côte d’Ivoire joue un rôle dominant . Elle perd ensuite progressivement son pouvoir de marché au profit des transformateurs., Brun Jean-François, Araujo Bonjean Catherine. Pouvoir de marché dans la filière cacao : l’hypothèse de Prebisch – Singer revisitée . In: Économie & prévision, n°186, 2008-5. Économie du développement et de la transition, sous la direction de Pierre Malgrange et Patrick Plane. pp. 133-144.

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Le cas du Maroc met en evidence le role crucial des facteurs d’economie politique pour mettre en œuvre des reformes fiscales, tout particulierement la reforme de la TVA, qui constitue un corollaire de la politique de liberalisation tarifaire. Or, ces facteurs ont ete jusqu’ici largement negliges.La necessite d’un appui a la reforme sous une forme renouvelee des partenaires exterieurs est mise en lumiere. A partir d’un accord sur un programme pluriannuel de reforme prenant en compte les facteurs d’economie politique, les partenaires exterieurs peuvent soutenir et stimuler l’effort de reforme des pays. Ces derniers doivent accorder une grande attention aux facteurs institutionnels.L’experience du Maroc est riche d’enseignements pour promouvoir des reformes fiscales dans les pays d’Afrique sub-saharienne egalement confrontes aux defis de la transition fiscale. Elle permet de degager les conditions a satisfaire et les lacunes a pallier pour atteindre une meilleure efficacite dans la mise en œuvre des reformes.

Cet article traite des difficultés méthodologiques soulevées par l’évaluation du niveau des recettes publiques dans les PED. Pour procéder à cette évaluation, il est tenu compte du niveau effectif des recettes publiques, de leur instabilité et enfin de l’effort fiscal. L’effort fiscal, qui permet d’isoler l’effet de la politique économique sur la mobilisation fiscale, est apprécié comme la différence entre le niveau effectif des recettes publiques et leur niveau structurel déterminé par le niveau de développement, l’ouverture commerciale, le poids de l’agriculture et la part des exportations minières et pétrolières dans les exportations totales. Rapportées au PIB les niveaux moyens de recettes des PED des différents zones géographiques sont similaires et stables sur les 25 dernières années. Cependant, l’Afrique au Sud du Sahara est caractérisée par une instabilité plus marquée et aussi par une politique économique longtemps plus favorable à la mobilisation fiscale que dans les autres zones (effort fiscal positif).

The aim of this paper is to examine whether there is a co-insurance mechanism against provincial aggregate income fluctuations between the Chinese provinces. Our theoretical argument relies on the existence of an efficient allocation of risk between the Chinese provinces. According to this analysis, an institutional arrangement between the provinces allows the perfect smoothing of provincial private consumption. In this case, changes in provincial private consumption depend rather on changes in aggregate Chinese income than on asymmetric changes in provincial income. We test this hypothesis on the 1989-2000 period for 30 Chinese provinces using the GMM estimator. Econometric evidence highlights the weakness of co-insurance mechanisms between the Chinese provinces. First, we reject the hypothesis of perfect insurance. Second, there does not seem to exist a significant, though imperfect, insurance mechanism. Indeed, the provinces’ private consumption reactions are the same either after a shock affecting all the provinces or after an asymmetric shock.

This paper reports panel gravity estimates of aggregate bilateral trade for 130 countries over the period 1962-96 in which the coefficient of distance is allowed to change over time. In a standard specification in which transport costs are proxied by distance only, it is found paradoxically that the absolute value of the elasticity of bilateral trade to distance has been significantly increasing.The result is attributed to a relatively larger decline in costs independent of distance (such as handling) than in distance-related costs (e.g. oil price). An extended version of the model that controls for these two factors eliminates this positive trend without reversing it. However, when the sample is split into two groups ("rich-rich" and "poor-poor"), the paradox is maintained for the "poor-poor" group. While not conclusive, these results are consistent with the view that poor countries may have been marginalized by the current wave of globalization.

Because Japan is a primary investor and trading partner of all the troubled economies, in the midst of the crisis, Japan was called in to help the crisis-stricken countries by opening its market to cheaper imports from South East Asia. The article analyses the opening to trade of the Japanese economy with the help of a gravity equation on panel data using a Hausman-Taylor estimator. We show that there is no certainty that such a role, that is the opening of Japan, will have positive effects for the ASEAN countries, although no detrimental effects are expected. In the worst case scenario, this move and its impact on ASEAN countries would have neutral effect. This new Japanese policy, if applicable, appears to be not enough to (1) help ASEAN countries emerge from the financial crisis and (2) enable Japan to play the role it could and/or should in the region. Although many look at this solution – Japan opening its national market -- as the only one, on the contrary, Japanese help has been different and has proved to be very crucial to the ASEAN countries in need. In fact, the case of Malaysia is a good example of how Japan can help to foster the economy. Their experience shows that, next to trade ties, a greater emphasis can be put on a technical and/or other type of co-operation. Within this framework, Japan has helped Malaysia to recover faster from the crisis, without the former having to open wider its market to the latter. However, Japan is also driven by its own interests. Thus, if it wants to play a leading role in furthering ASEAN integration, especially in economic aspects, it will have to consider, soon or later, opening up its market to appear more reliable to its neighbours.

The evolution of regional policy between the Mao era and the Deng era generated much debate concerning inter-provincial disparities and the trade-off between efficiency and equity. The aim of this paper is to explore the existence of regional growth spillover effects looked for Deng’s policy. Indeed, the main objective was the spread of coastal provinces’ growth onto inland provinces’ growth. After reviewing the theoretical underpinnings of such effects, their existence is tested with panel data, for the period 1981-1998. Moreover, the hypothesis of an equal distribution of these effects over all the inland provinces is also tested. A relative failure to boost development of the western provinces from the coastal provinces’ growth is observed. Hence, it would seen to be an error to wait for spillover effects to be sufficient to reduce disparities between Chinese provinces in the short run.

This paper has two main objectives : first, to evaluate and to analyse the spatial concentration of industry in China; second, to estimate a link between the openness of China and this concentration. We are interested in the evolution of industrial location to study the regional specialisations. To explain increasing disparities we perform an econometric investigation, derived from the economic geography models, to test the impact of foreign trade on industrial location between the Chinese regions.

One of the main subjects in the theory of economic growth is to explain regional differences among rates of growth. In this paper, we address this issue through the notion of the "underdevelopment trap". Such a trap may be the result of strategic complementarities between investment decisions which generate multiple equilibria. The latter may be Pareto inefficient because of technological externalities. We test our model on international pooled data on the period 1970-90. The econometric analysis shows that economic growth rates depend on regional investment decisions. Moreover, it appears that such regional spillovers are channeled mainly through the physical rather than through the human capital stock.

La forte ouverture de l’economie chinoise incite a s’interroger sur les effets qui en decoulent en matiere d’organisation spatiale. D’assez nombreux travaux, a la suite des recherches de KRUGMAN et VENABLES, ont ete consacres a l’analyse empirique des effets du commerce international sur la localisation des activites. Ils ont, le plus souvent, ete appliques aux economies europeennes et surtout nord-americaine.L’objectif de cet article est d’evaluer l’impact de l’ouverture au commerce de la Chine sur l’evolution des specialisations regionales en matiere de production industrielle. Dans un premier temps, nous mesurons l’importance des disparites regionales a l’aide d’un indicateur d’Isard. Dans un second temps, nous realisons un test econometrique sur donnees de panel etablissant une determination de la plus ou moins forte specialisation des regions par l’ouverture au commerce international.

We oppose two concepts of trade globalization : (1) the increase of the countries trade to GDP ratio ("globalization-integration"), (2) the alleviation of related to distance obstacles to trade ("geographical globalization"). We choose as a criterion of a possible geographical globalization the decrease of the absolute value of the (negative) distance elasticity of bilateral trade. The trend of this elasticity is estimated through a panel gravitation model of world trade covering the years 1962 to 1995 and a large sample of countries at very different levels of development. Contrary to the globalization-integration, a geographical globalization does not appear. We find a significative position trend of the absolute value of the distance elasticity of trade. Moreover trade between neighbour countries is increasing. So impact of distance has not been decreasing, but is reinforcing. An augmented gravitation model also allows to test significantly the assumptions of scale economies and of decreasing marginal costs of distance. This augmented model evidences again the increasing trend of the impact of distance on trade.

This paper aims to assess the role of instabilities on Africa's low rates of growth during the seventies and eighties, using cross-section econometric estimates, on a sample of African and non-African countries and two pooled decades. Africa exhibits higher 'primary' instabilities (climatic, terms of trade and political instabilities), i.e., instabilities which are structural rather than the result of policy. These 'primary' instabilities influence African growth more through a lower growth residual than through a lower average rate of investment. They do so by their impact on economic policy, which is evidenced by their influence on two 'intermediate' instabilities, the instabilities of the rate of investment and of the real exchange rate, which significantly lower the rate of growth. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press.

Is Economie Growth Affected by Taxation Policy ? Since Barro [1991], there is a growing empirical literature devoted to the determinants of economic growth. This literature fails, however, to take into account the role of taxation. It is important to analyse the effects of taxation when drastic taxation reforms are implemented. In this paper we attempt to evaluate the magnitude of some taxation ratios on economic growth using an international pooled cross-section sample. We find that the global taxation shares of GDP reduce the growth rates and that taxes on trade are the most harmful., A la suite de Barro [1991], un grand nombre de travaux sont consacrés à l'analyse empirique des facteurs de la croissance économique, mais ils omettent le plus souvent de tenir compte de la fiscalité. Cette omission est d'autant plus surprenante que beaucoup de pays ont mis en oeuvre, dans les deux dernières décennies, des réformes visant à réduire les distorsions d'origine fiscale. L'objectif de cet article est de pallier cette lacune par une analyse de l'influence de la fiscalité sur la croissance à partir de séries internationales en pooling. Deux résultats essentiels sont obtenus : le taux de prélèvement global par rapport au produit est un facteur de moindre croissance. De plus, la croissance est défavorablement affectée par la part des impôts assis sur le commerce extérieur dans les recettes globales., Brun Jean-François, Chambas Gérard, Combes Jean-Louis. La politique fiscale agit-elle sur la croissance ?. In: Revue d'économie du développement, 6e année N°2, 1998. pp. 115-125.