Linking participatory and GIS-based land use planning methods: A case study from Burkina Faso

Sustainable land use planning is crucial for realizing the aim of food security and for combating land degradation in the Sahel. A participatory land use planning workshop was organised in a village in the eastern region of Burkina Faso to investigate land use problems, their causes, effects and possible solutions. Participatory research tools and GIS were combined to get insight into possible conflicts or synergies between different land use options as mapped by different ethnic groups. Pictograms were used to locate alternative land use options on the map, after which they were digitised for analysis with GIS. The workshop confirms the importance of integrating scientific and local knowledge to develop concrete options for sustainable land use that fit to local realities and aspirations. Local people are knowledgeable about the driving forces behind land degradation, they take actions to combat the effects of degradation, and they have concrete ideas about alternative land use options. The use of GIS proved its added value in the participatory process of integrated land use planning. The maps that were produced also facilitate discussions between community members, researchers and government representatives at the regional level, both regarding current land use problems and regarding alternative options as perceived by the local population.     

The Negative Effects of Inappropriate Price Stimulation; The Case of Senegal: Rice Price Increases to Encourage Production May Harm Families of Non-responsive Subsistence Farmers

Abstract . Some governments of developing economieshzve been encouraged to use pricing policy to stimulate increases in food production. It is not known whether all subsistence farmers in those countries operate in an economic, financial and technological environment in which they can respond positively to price increases. In this paper models were used to demonstrate two situations: one in which farmers responded to price stimulation and another where price increases were ineffective, costly and produced results inconsistent with national goals. Data from the Basse Casamance Region in Senegal were used to show that farmers were not responsive to price changes and were net purchasers of grains. The study concludes that unless farmers' supply curves were shifted to the right—that is, that they meet more of their own subsistence needs—recent Senegalese government rice price increases could be harmful to the farm family.     

Inequalities of opportunity in the access and use of telecommunication services in Togo

The liberalization of the telecommunications sector in Togo aimed at ensuring access to a better quality of telecommunication services at affordable prices to everyone. While the liberalization policy has increased competition in the sector and reduced significantly telecommunication services prices charged to costumers, statistics on the access and use of telecommunication services in Togo reveal disparities with respect to individuals' socio-economic characteristics which could be an indication of the existence of inequalities of opportunities in the access and use of these services.This paper investigates the inequalities of opportunity in the access and use of telecommunication services in Togo using a parametric approach. The results of estimations indicate that, inequalities of opportunities are larger for men and the elderly than respectively women and youths and are more pronounced in urban areas and regions such as the Plateaux and Savanna regions. Moreover, the circumstance variables such as the ‘place of residence’ and the ‘region’ are the key variables in explaining the inequalities of opportunities in the access and use of telecommunication services in Togo. So, policies toward reducing inequalities of opportunity in the access and use of telecommunication services in Togo should be designed with regards to men, the elderly, and people living in urban areas and regions such as the Plateaux and Savanna regions.     

Discipline, Signaling, and Currency Boards

The paper models the choice between currency boards (CBs) and adjustable pegs (or managed floating). Countries adopting CBs have grown faster and inflated less on average than countries adopting other regimes. The explanation hinges on key features of CBs: policy discipline and inflation credibility. The authors find separating equilibria in which a weak government chooses a CB as a discipline device while a tough government chooses a standard peg for its policy flexibility. Paradoxically, the weak government can then outperform the tough government on average. In simulations performed, CBs welfare can exceed peg welfare even when unemployment persistence is strong.     

Does conditional market skewness resolve the puzzling market risk-return relationship?

In this paper, we employ instrumental variables methods that allow time-varying risk and reward-to-risk to test various conditional asset pricing models. We find a negative partial relation between the market excess return and conditional market variance. In contrast with recent findings, we show that this negative relationship is not due to the omission of the hedge term associated with the ICAPM. However, conditional market skewness seems to partly account for this negative risk-return relationship.     

Rising BRIC and Changes in Sub‐Saharan Africa's Business Cycle Patterns

This paper assesses the extent to which Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA)'s business cycle is synchronized with that of the rest of the world (RoW). SSA's business cycle has not only moved in the same direction as that of the RoW, but has also gradually drifted away from the G7 in favor of the BRIC. Trade with the BRIC has been the strongest driver of this shift. As fiscal policy stances in SSA and the BRIC are not synchronized, they have not caused output correlation. Also, financial openness, which is at an early stage in SSA, has acted as a neutral force.     

Resolving the Presidential Puzzle

Many financial economists are puzzled by the fact that stock returns are higher under Democratic than Republican presidencies. In this paper, we test whether this return differential is explained by risk using a conditional version of the Fama and French (1993) model that allows risk to vary across political cycles. We find that the presidential puzzle can be explained when risk is properly taken into account. Much of the return differential can be attributed to the fact that Democratic presidencies are associated with higher market and default risk premiums than their Republican counterparts.     

Invisible influence, tangible trap: The clerical conundrum

This paper contends that the contribution made by clerical workers to organisational effectiveness is invisible due in part to the dominant perspective on the clerical sector, and in part to what is seen to be the nature of the workers themselves. In synthesising some of the degradation literature with an examination of elements of clerical subjectivity it is demonstrated that clerical effectiveness is rendered invisible and that this, in turn, essentially traps clerks in low status work. Drawing on ideas emerging from past and recent literature on tacit knowledge and comparable worth, the paper seeks to demonstrate that, by applying the principles of tacitness and its analysis to this non-managerial area of work, we can see where the influence of clerical workers lies. The paper ends with a challenge to organisations which reaps the benefits of a skilful and knowledgeable workforce while doing little to formally acknowledge such expertise.     

The Evolution and Impact of Infrastructure in Middle-Income Countries: Anything Special?

We examine the evolution of infrastructure, and the impact of infrastructure investment, in middle-income countries (MICs). We document how different types of infrastructure stocks, as well as infrastructure investment, vary with the level of development and growth performance. We then use the two-stage approach of Corsetti, Meier, and Müller (2012) to identify exogenous public investment shocks and investigate the macroeconomic impact of these shocks. We find that the provision of infrastructure varies across development stages; there is a focus on basic infrastructure, such as transport, water, and sanitation, during early stages, and an emphasis on “advanced” infrastructure, such as power and especially information and communication technology, in later stages. Better-performing MICs tend to invest more on infrastructure. They also have more information and communication technology infrastructure. Finally, we find a more significant and sustained impact of exogenous public investment shocks on output in MICs than in low-income countries.