Sen’s Capability Approach as a new social-liberal paradigm (In French)

The goal of this paper is to show that Amartya Sen’s idea can be rooted in the social-liberal paradigm. Combining the respect of an unconditional freedom and the research of a real equality, Sen, thanks to the Capability Approach, proposes a framework for a new theory of justice.capabilities, social-liberalism, democracy, liberalism, socialism

Quel espace d’évaluation pour la pauvreté ? Une analyse des interactions théoriques entre utilités, ressources et capabilités

La mise en œuvre de programmes de lutte contre la pauvreté et les inégalités nécessite, au préalable, d’opter un espace d’évaluation permettant de définir les critères d’identification des ménages pauvres. Cet article se propose d’étudier de façon croisée trois espaces habituellement mobilisés : espace des revenus, espace des besoins essentiels et espace des capabilités. La question principale est de savoir si, théoriquement, ces approches offrent une information redondante ou au contraire une information complémentaire. La réponse à cette question n’étant pas univoque, nous nous proposons d’en analyser les conséquences, notamment en matière de richesse informationnelle. The implementation of anti-poverty policies requires, before all, to choose a space of evaluation making it possible to define the identifying information of the poor households. This article proposes to study in a cross way three usually mobilized spaces: incomes space, basic needs space and capabilities space. The fundamental question is to know if, theoretically, these approaches offer redundant information or on the contrary additional information. The answer to this question not being univocal, we propose to analyze the consequences. (Full text in french)

Quelle perspective pour l'approche par les capacités ?

Depuis trente ans, le paradigme utilitariste du bien-être est remis en cause par de nombreux auteurs. Amartya Sen, s'appuyant sur la lecture de l'œuvre de John Rawls, est celui qui a poussé le plus loin l'analyse en développant de nouvelles notions comme les capabilités et les fonctionnements, permettant ainsi de repenser le développement et l'évaluation de la pauvreté sur des bases non plus seulement monétaires, mais aussi philosophiques, sociales ou politiques. Le cheminement et l'enrichissement de cette approche par de nombreux auteurs peuvent-ils toutefois conduire à l'élaboration d'un nouveau paradigme économique ou se contentent-ils d'enrichir le paradigme utilitariste ? La réponse ne saurait être positive puisque Sen reste avant tout un économiste utilitariste, basant son analyse du bien-être sur l'utilité retirée par les individus de la réalisation des fonctionnements potentiels. The aim of this paper is to draw a framework of the Capability Approach evolution from its roots to its prospects, from the criticism of utilitarian and rawlsian's theories to the freedom-based model of development. The main asset of the Sen's Capability Approach is a new measure of Well-Being based on non-monetary reflexions. But can one affirm that the Capability Approach is a new paradigm? One must answer negatively as this approach remains a utilitarian measure of well-being. (Full text in French)

Photofocusing: Light and flow of phototactic microswimmer suspension

We explore in this paper the phenomenon of photofocusing: a coupling between flow vorticity and biased swimming of microalgae toward a light source that produces a focusing of the microswimmer suspension. We combine experiments that investigate the stationary state of this phenomenon as well as the transition regime with analytical and numerical modeling. We show that the experimentally observed scalings on the width of the focalized region and the establishment length as a function of the flow velocity are well described by a simple theoretical model

Poverty and shortage economy: a reappraisal with the capability approach (In French)

The objective of this article is to propose a reappraisal of the phenomenon of poverty in Soviet Union by integrating the problems of shortage. With this intention, we refer to the capability approach developed by Amartya Sen in so far as it proposes a broader framework to evaluate wellbeing and poverty. The idea developed is that freedom of choice is an essential dimension of wellbeing, and that this is strongly constrained within the context of a shortage economy.Poverty, shortage economy, capabilities, functionnings, Soviet Union

Estimating multidimensional poverty in a developing country. The case of the “Observatoire de Guinée Maritime » Project (In French)

The aim of this contribution is to present the several steps needed in order to evaluate multidimensional poverty. Based on the capability approach and more precisely on its informational basis, a list of achieved functionings, one offers a measure of multidimensional well-being and evaluates the incidence of the multidimensional poverty, based on data collected within the “Observatoires de la Guinée Maritime” Project..poverty, capabilities, functionings, fuzzy sets theory, Maritime Guinea, observatories

Prospects on the application of necessary optimality conditions on the resolution of the Goddard problem with unknown bounded parameters using interval arithmetics

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Prospects on solving an optimal control problem with bounded uncertainties on parameters using interval arithmetic

An interval method based on Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle is proposed to enclose the solutions of an optimal control problem with embedded bounded uncertainties. This method is used to compute an enclosure of all optimal trajectories of the problem, as well as open loop and closed loop enclosures meant to validate an optimal guidance algorithm on a concrete system with inaccurate knowledge of the parameters. The differences in geometry of these enclosures are exposed, and showcased on a simple system. These enclosures can guarantee that a given optimal control problem will yield a satisfactory trajectory for any realization of the uncertainties. Contrarily, the probability of failure may not be eliminated and the problem might need to be adjusted

Business-to-Business data sharing:an economic and legal analysis

The European Commission announced in its Data Strategy (2020) its intentions to propose an enabling legislative framework for the governance of common European data spaces, to review and operationalise data portability, to prioritise standardisation activities and foster data interoperability and to clarify usage rights for co-generated IoT data. This Strategy starts from the premise that there is not enough data sharing and that much data remain locked up and are not available for innovative re-use. The Commission will also consider the adoption of a New Competition Tool as well as the adoption of ex ante regulation for large online gatekeeping platforms as part of the announced Digital Services Act Package . In this context, the goal of this report is to examine the obstacles to Business-to-Business (B2B) data sharing: what keeps businesses from sharing or trading more of their data with other businesses and what can be done about it? For this purpose, this report uses the well-known tools of legal and economic thinking about market failures. It starts from the economic characteristics of data and explores to what extent private B2B data markets result in a socially optimal degree of data sharing, or whether there are market failures in data markets that might justify public policy intervention. It examines the conditions under which monopolistic data market failures may occur. It contrasts these welfare losses with the welfare gains from economies of scope in data aggregation in large pools. It also discusses other potential sources of B2B data market failures due to negative externalities, risks and transaction costs and asymmetric information situations. In a next step, the paper explores solutions to overcome these market failures. Private third-party data intermediaries may be in a position to overcome market failures due to high transactions costs and risks. They can aggregate data in large pools to harvest the benefits of economies of scale and scope in data. Where third-party intervention fails, regulators can step in, with ex-post competition instruments and with ex-ante regulation. The latter includes data portability rights for personal data and mandatory data access rights