The paper reviews the principles and practical considerations involved in the choice between foreign and domestic financing of fiscal deficits, and derives a series of recommendations broadly applicable to Central and West African countries. The paper develops a simple analytical framework and...

This paper analyzes the impact of human capital on growth, on the basis of refined calculations of human capital, and with a focus on West Africa. Using a growth-accounting methodology, it distinguishes the sources of growth between the accumulation of factors of production and changes in...

Cotton production in West and Central Africa (WCA) has contributed to growth and poverty reduction. Recently, the objective of poverty alleviation has been adversely impacted by the downward pressures on world prices (exacerbated by subsidies by major cotton producers outside Africa). Several...

In a context where many African populations are excluded from the traditional banking system, financial inclusion appears to be a determining factor in enabling agents in need of financing, notably producers and consumers, to have easy access to financial services in order to contribute to the...

This paper addresses a number of issues regarding petroleum product pricing in Western Africaemphasizing international spillovers. We use panel unit root rests and long-run modeling based on vector error correction models to assess links and convergence in petroleum product prices across...

We develop a multicountry model in which governments aim at excessive spending in order to serve the narrow interests of the group in power. This puts pressure on the monetary authorities to extract seigniorage, and thus affects the incentives countries would have to participate in a monetary...

The staff report on discussions with regional institutions of the West African Economic and Monetary Union is presented. The region faced a number of challenges in 2011, with the intensification of the political crisis in Côte d’Ivoire and a large increase in global food and fuel prices. A...

This paper examines the economic implications of fiscal policy coordination in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) in the light of the January 1994 devaluation of the CFA franc. Diverging tax, tariff, and budgetary politics are identified and it is argued that the resulting...