This article is based on field studies in rural West Africa. It concentrates on the socio-structural effects of development aid in the long run, in contrast to numerous available evaluation reports on the short-run effects of development projects. The study reveals that superficial...

From "Comrade" to "Monsieur": Structural Adjustment and Democratization in Benin: The process of political and economic liberalization in Benin is regarded as a model for the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. Benin made history by becoming the first African country to overthrow a military dictator by...

Monetary coordination is high on the agenda of different regional organizations in Africa. Economic benefits of a common currency, like lower transaction cost, increased macroeconomic stability, or the shielding of central banks against political pressure from nationalist elites and their...

The WAEMU and the Franc CFA-Zone: A new culture of co-operation in Francophone Africa? The CFA-zone is basically composed of two sub-zones, characterised by significant structural economic and political differences within and between its member countries: the West African Economic and Monetary...

This paper provides a contribution to the debate on the role of EU cohesion policy in Italy. The focus is on the territorial effects of EU spending from 1996 to 2007. The empirical analysis considers a neoclassical growth model which is augmented by the structural funds spent by each region....

The evaluation of economic development level is commonly measured by the growth rate of GDP. However, this single-dimensional measurement may cause potential issue to investigate sustainable economic development and growth model. An alternative framework is introduced to economic development...

The spatial patterns of changes in economic diversion and convergence have become more blurred in the last decades. International disparities between nations have diminished. At the same time intra-national disparities have increased in most European countries. In the search to identify the...

Quality rural products in general and wine more specifically, acquire an increasingly important role in European Communities Rural Growth policies. This results from the fact that they have a commercial advantage over other products, they support rural income and the rural economy, contribute to...

Although in this part of the European continent a series of success stories developed over the last years, such as the transnational automotive sector in the middle Danubian area, there is a lack of visibility of small and medium enterprises activity on transnational level. The main aim of our...

Regional politicians regard the cluster concept as a key factor for promoting regional economic performance. They refer to a comprehensive set of theoretical and empirical literature which provides the clusters' positive impact on regional development. Recent studies dealing with that topic...