This paper aims to study the impact of external debt on capital flight conditional on the institutional quality of host countries. Three major contributions emerge. First, the role of external debt ...in capital flight is clarified. Econometric results based on 26 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1970-2015 show a positive relationship between external debt and capital flight. Second, high quality institutions weaken the link between debt and capital flight somewhat, although they do not eliminate it completely. The results suggest that improving the quality of institutions in sub-Saharan African countries could help minimise the contribution of external debt to capital flight. Third, the analysis takes into account panel data, the persistence of capital flight and the potential endogeneity of the regressors.
We use an activity-based transport model to simulate the progression of a virus at the regional scale. We analyse several scenarios corresponding to distinct situations and describing how small ...initial clusters of infected agents expand and reach a pandemic level. We evaluate the effectiveness of some public restrictions and compare the number of infections with respect to the base-case scenario, where no restrictions are in place. We consider the wearing of masks in public transport and/or in some activities (work, leisure and shopping) and the implementation of a lockdown. Our analysis shows that education, including the primary level, is one of the major activities where infections occur. We find that the wearing of masks in transportation only does not yield important impacts. The lockdown is efficient in containing the spread of the virus but, at the same time, significantly increases the length of the wave (factor of two). This is because the number of agents who are susceptible to be infected remains high. Our analysis uses the murdasp tool specifically designed to process the output of transport models and performs the simulation of the pandemic.
Abstract
We conduct a systematic and interdisciplinary review of empirical literature assessing evidence on induced innovation in energy and related technologies. We explore links between ...demand-drivers (both market-wide and targeted); indicators of innovation (principally, patents); and outcomes (cost reduction, efficiency, and multi-sector/macro consequences). We build on existing reviews in different fields and assess over 200 papers containing original data analysis. Papers linking drivers to patents, and indicators of cumulative capacity to cost reductions (experience curves), dominate the literature. The former does not directly link patents to outcomes; the latter does not directly test for the causal impact of on cost reductions. Diverse other literatures provide additional evidence concerning the links between deployment, innovation activities, and outcomes. We derive three main conclusions. (a) Demand-pull forces enhance patenting; econometric studies find positive impacts in industry, electricity and transport sectors in all but a few specific cases. This applies to all drivers—general energy prices, carbon prices, and targeted interventions that build markets. (b) Technology costs decline with cumulative investment for almost every technology studied across all time periods, when controlled for other factors. Numerous lines of evidence point to dominant causality from at-scale deployment (prior to self-sustaining diffusion) to cost reduction in this relationship. (c) Overall innovation is cumulative, multi-faceted, and self-reinforcing in its direction (path-dependent). We conclude with brief observations on implications for modelling and policy. In interpreting these results, we suggest distinguishing the economics of active deployment, from more passive diffusion processes, and draw the following implications. There is a role for policy diversity and experimentation, with evaluation of potential gains from innovation in the broadest sense. Consequently, endogenising innovation in large-scale models is important for deriving policy-relevant conclusions. Finally, seeking to relate quantitative economic evaluation to the qualitative socio-technical transitions literatures could be a fruitful area for future research.
Abstract We conduct a systematic and interdisciplinary review of empirical literature assessing evidence on induced innovation in energy and related technologies. We explore links between ...demand-drivers (both market-wide and targeted); indicators of innovation (principally, patents); and outcomes (cost reduction, efficiency, and multi-sector/macro consequences). We build on existing reviews in different fields and assess over 200 papers containing original data analysis. Papers linking drivers to patents, and indicators of cumulative capacity to cost reductions (experience curves), dominate the literature. The former does not directly link patents to outcomes; the latter does not directly test for the causal impact of on cost reductions. Diverse other literatures provide additional evidence concerning the links between deployment, innovation activities, and outcomes. We derive three main conclusions. (a) Demand-pull forces enhance patenting; econometric studies find positive impacts in industry, electricity and transport sectors in all but a few specific cases. This applies to all drivers—general energy prices, carbon prices, and targeted interventions that build markets. (b) Technology costs decline with cumulative investment for almost every technology studied across all time periods, when controlled for other factors. Numerous lines of evidence point to dominant causality from at-scale deployment (prior to self-sustaining diffusion) to cost reduction in this relationship. (c) Overall innovation is cumulative, multi-faceted, and self-reinforcing in its direction (path-dependent). We conclude with brief observations on implications for modelling and policy. In interpreting these results, we suggest distinguishing the economics of active deployment, from more passive diffusion processes, and draw the following implications. There is a role for policy diversity and experimentation, with evaluation of potential gains from innovation in the broadest sense. Consequently, endogenising innovation in large-scale models is important for deriving policy-relevant conclusions. Finally, seeking to relate quantitative economic evaluation to the qualitative socio-technical transitions literatures could be a fruitful area for future research.
The present paper investigates the tax returns of French cohabiting couples with children, defined here as neither married nor in a civil union. These couples represent an interesting case, because ...they form two separate tax units according to French tax laws and must optimally assign their children to one of the parents’ tax units to optimize tax rebates. Using administrative tax data and a microsimulation model, we analyze whether cohabiting couples allocate their children to minimize the joint tax burden of the family. We find, however, that children are not optimally allocated in 25% of cases. We interpret the reasons why couples fail to financially optimize their situation by discussing the usual explanations (e.g., transaction costs, “simple rule,” inertia) as well as a more specific reason: the potential non-cooperative behavior of cohabiting couples, possibly related to the lack of a binding agreement or potential asymmetries of information between partners. We also find suggestive evidence regarding heuristics (such as the equal split rule for an even number of children), a large degree of inertia (based on fiscal status changes over two years), and possible non-cooperation (suboptimal couples tend to separate more and marry less in the subsequent period).
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Cet article propose une histoire doctrinale du corps des professeurs agrégés des Facultés de droit. Une doctrine est un système qui implique de la part de leurs auteurs un jugement de valeur ...accompagné d’un programme de reconstruction sociale quand ce jugement résulte en une condamnation totale ou partielle du monde économique actuel. Les professeurs d’économie politique des facultés de droit sont regroupés autour de trois grandes familles doctrinales : les socialistes, les interventionnistes et les libéraux. En 1877 le premier corps des professeurs d’économie politique des Facultés est composé à 75 % d’économistes qui professent et défendent la doctrine libérale. Dès 1897 ils ne sont plus que 41 %. Leur poids ensuite décline jusqu’à 1942 pour atteindre 15 %. L’institutionnalisation de l’économie politique dans les Facultés a ainsi favorisé la formation d’une nouvelle orthodoxie autour de la recherche d’une troisième voie (plus de 70 % du corps des professeurs en 1942) entre le libéralisme et le socialisme. Elle a aussi permis l’installation de la doctrine socialiste dans le corps des économistes des facultés. La Faculté a par ailleurs donné à la France de nombreux hommes politiques. 10 % des Agrégés de sciences économiques de cette période ont occupé des postes de ministre ou des postes équivalents. Outre l’intérêt historique de cette histoire, elle permet d’affirmer que le libéralisme, au moins dans les facultés, a été remis en cause avant la crise de 1929. L’évolution du positionnement doctrinal précède les faits, ici la grande crise. JEL : A11
In “Making Sense of One Another in Crossing Borders: Social Cognition and Migration Politics,” special editors Ilka Vari-Lavoisier and Susan T. Fiske, with consulting editors Christophe Nordman and ...Douglas S. Massey, convene a group of scholars to discuss how “new intellectual approaches—ideas crossing disciplinary borders—can inform our understanding of people crossing borders—migration-based social diversity—and the design of public policies in diverse societies.”Through discussions of cognition and labor market mobility in India to anxiety among natives and migrants in the UK after the Brexit vote, Fiske and Vari-Lavoisier and their authors paint a picture of how individual cognition influences an individual’s decision to migrate, or their view on migrants’ social status, or their view of migrants’ religious conversion, among other topics. From this individual cognition frame, the editors and authors discuss how broader social and public policy views are shaped. “In other words,” Fiske and Vari-Lavoisier write in their introduction to the volume, “this first volume on the cognition and migration nexus stands as an invitation to deepen the analysis of the relationships among internal mental processes, collective representations, social practices, political structures, and socioeconomic change.”
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