(English) A period of deep disillusionment followed the wave of enthusiasm provoked by the numerous democratic transitions in Africa in the early 90’s. The setting up of these democratically elected regimes has not in fact pulled Africa out of its economic stagnation. Also this democratisation...

(english) Because of the lack of panel data there have been few studies on poverty dynamics in developing countries. Furthermore, because of methodological differences, it is difficult to draw general conclusions from them. This paper analyses a large sample of Peruvian and Madagascan urban...

Assessing gender inequalities has become one of the key issues of the new international poverty reduction strategies implemented in most LDCs in the past few years. It has been argued that differences in labour force attachment across gender are important to explain the extent of the gender...

(english) The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of education on urban labour market participation and earnings in seven major West African cities. Our results show that although education does not always guard against unemployment, it does increase individual earnings in Abidjan,...

(english) This study aims at assessing the impact of a microfinance institution serving micro-entrepreneurs in Antananarivo (Madagascar). It starts by reviewing the recent literature on the socioeconomic impact of microfinance, then moves on to describe the current state of supply and demand of...

Whether EPZs are beneficial for development remains a subject to controversy. This paper analyzes part of the question, the labor market impacts, using unique time-series labor force survey data from a unique (for Africa) environment: urban Madagascar, in which EPZs grew very rapidly during the...

(english) This article highlights the main findings of an evaluation report on the impact of a microfinance program based in Antananarivo. It first provides background information on microfinance programs in Madagascar and on the market-demand for micro-loans. It then describes the main...

(english) In January 2010, Haiti has been hit by the worst earthquake in its dramatic history. It was followed by an unprecedented international mobilization. Since then, a succession of natural disasters has struck the country (floods, epidemics, etc.). At the commemoration of the fourth...