Senior Fellows Testimonials

In October 2014, Burkina Faso entered a new era when a social uprising resulted in the overthrow after 27 years of President Blaise Compaoré. The uprising was triggered by Compaoré’s attempt to amend the constitution so he could run for another term. In late 2015, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré was elected and sworn as a new president with high hopes for a new Burkina Faso. Corruption, democratic reforms, poverty, and economic development dominated President Kaboré’s inauguration speech ...

On the eve of the final negotiations on ‘‘future relations’’, an agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) seems likely. First of all, London sees American support vanishing: unlike Donald Trump, President-elect Joe Biden is against Brexit. He announced that a USA-United Kingdom trade agreement would be ruled out if a ‘‘hard border’’ was re-established between the two Irelands. However, this is precisely what an exit without an agreement would imply: Northern ...

Africa is experiencing economic growth deceleration that reached 2.9% on average between 2010 and 2018, against 5.4% between 2000 and 2010. The sectoral performance of African economies depends critically on the stock and quality of infrastructure, directly as an essential input (for example, energy and transport) and indirectly by increasing total factor productivity. African economic integration, and the hoped-for emergence, can never be fully achieved with poor infrastructure, bo ...

Though Donald Trump lost the U.S. presidential election, it didn’t stop him claiming victory soon after the vote closed, and asserting that the counting should be stopped. It was abundantly clear that millions of ballots all around the nation were still being processed but nevertheless the president appeared in the East Room of the White House on Nov. 4, speaking at a podium in front of a Trump/Pence banner. “This is a fraud on the American public,” he said. “This is an embarrassmen ...

This article analyzes the impact of firms' workforce composition on cultural distance and export performance. On the one hand, empirical literature has shown that there are dark trade costs that hinder trade performance, among which is cultural distance; on the other hand, the literature has shown that firms' export performance is positively correlated with employees’ qualifications. Using a unique database of 59,606 French firms, we reconcile these two streams of literature by esti ...

The effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda requires a greater level of capital mobilization and new institutional arrangements that guarantee the better allocation of these funds. Based on concrete results from the experience of the Development Bank of Minas Gerais, in Brazil, this paper argues that Subnational Development Banks (SDBs) can be powerful players within development finance institutions’ networks, as their local expertise can bring efficiency and effectiveness to th ...

A la veille des ultimes négociations sur les « relations futures », un accord entre le Royaume-Uni et l’Union européenne (UE) paraît probable. D’abord, Londres voit s’envoler l’appui américain : contrairement à Donald Trump, le président élu Joe Biden est défavorable au Brexit. Il a annoncé qu’un accord commercial USA-Royaume-Uni serait exclu si une « frontière dure » était rétablie entre les deux Irlandes. Or, c’est justement ce qu’impliquerait une sortie sans accord : l’Irlande d ...

Avec la venue de Renault à Melloussa, près de Tanger, puis de PSA à Kenitra et, demain, du Chinois BYD, à Casablanca, la filière automobile marocaine aura atteint une capacité annuelle de production de 700 000 à 1000 000 de véhicules, sous différentes marques. Ce qui fait que le Maroc est aujourd’hui le leader des modèles de Tourisme en Afrique. Cette étude rappelle les grandes étapes de cette marche de la maturité et de l'excellence, qui commence en 1959, avec la Somaca (la Société ...