(english) This cross-country study examines the determinants of school attendance through household surveys conducted the same year in seven West African countries. The aim of this comparison, based on the relatively homogeneous population of urban households living in the capitals, is to look...

(english) Since the 1994 devaluation, growth has been quite strong in Mali (about 5% p.a. on average), but much weaker in terms of GDP per person (about 2.6% p.a.) due to a very high index of fecundity. Growth is still very unstable, due to a large share of agriculture in GDP and very sensitive...

This paper estimates the long run impact of a large income shock, by exploiting the regional variation of the 1987-1989 locust invasion in Mali. Using exhaustive Population Census data, we construct birth cohorts of individuals and compare those born and living in the years and villages affected...

(english) This paper analyzes the level of job satisfaction expressed by individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa. The approach is original in three respects. no in-depth economic study has ever been produced on the determinants of job satisfaction on this continent; the approach aims at isolating the...

The theoretical literature on pro-poor growth as well as its applications have not paid sufficient attention to the issue of varying inflation rates across the income distribution. Ignoring inflation inequality in pro-poor growth measurements can however severely bias assessments of pro-poor...

Previous poverty assessments for Burkina Faso were biased due to the neglect of some important methodological issues. This led to the so-called ‘Burkinabè Growth-Poverty-Paradox’, i.e. relatively sustained macro-economic growth, but almost constant poverty. We estimate that poverty...

The empirical evidence shows that in developing countries illness shocks can have a severe impact on household income. Few studies have so fare examined the effects of mortality. The major difference between illness and mortality shocks is that a death of a household member does not only induce...

(english) Impact evaluation has recently gained significant momentum with good reason, as they help to quantify the social impacts of interventions. With increased importance being attached to evaluation, one spillover effect could be capacity development in African countries with increased...

The body of literature on purely democratic countries can sometimes fail to explain the behavior of government in semi-democratic African countries. Empirical and theoretical political economic papers find that public funds target ruling party supporters and swing districts. Our results,...

(english) After debt cancellations, in particular MDRI (Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative) debt ratios in Low Income Country dropped to historic lows. They are now getting into debt again, because of Bretton Woods Institutions (BWI) new loans, of emerging countries’ (namely China) loans, and...