Informality is ubiquitous in most developing countries. Understanding the informal economy is therefore of utmost importance from a political, economic and social point of view. Paradoxically, despite its economic importance, knowledge is extremely limited regarding the informal economy. It...

This paper contributes to the current debate on pro-poor growth. It discusses the respective impacts of macro-economic growth and the reduction of income inequality on monetary poverty. Our results emphasise the potential importance of the latter factor and suggest putting forward redistribution...

The success of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) or the Zone Franche in Madagascar is, with the exception of Mauritius, an isolated and unrecognized case in Africa. The Zone Franche has had a highly significant macroeconomic impact in terms of exports and jobs. Madagascar became the number two...

Public statistics face quite a challenge when it comes to measuring new dimensions of development (institutions, governance, and social and political participation). To take up this challenge, modules on Governance, Democracy and Multiple Dimensions of Poverty have been appended to household...

The classical and more recent theories on development all fail to explain Madagascar’s long-running economic underperformance. This paper proposes a reinterpretation of Malagasy history based on the analytical framework of political economy. Our analyses point to the fact that, despite...

New factors such as governance, ownership and citizen’s participation are now a central focus of development programmes, especially in the scope of the new international poverty reduction strategies (PRSP and HIPC initiatives). To gain a better understanding of countries’ trajectories and...

Cet ouvrage reprend une sélection de communications présentées lors d'une conférence internationale organisée en mai 2010 à Hanoï par l'académie des sciences sociales du Vietnam et l'institut de recherche pour le développement.

Subjective welfare is an increasingly important topic for empirical literature. Several factors (psychological, socio-demographic and economic) are proposed to explain subjective welfare. Until now, research on subjective welfare has primarily focused on developed countries. Very little research...

This paper analyzes the impact of corruption on the extent of trust in political institutions using a rich collection of comparable data provided by the Afrobarometer surveys conducted in 18 sub-Saharan African countries. More specifically, we set out to test the “efficient grease”...