Taxation in Developing Countries: Case Study of Cameroon

tax reform, Cameroon, incidence, impact analysis

Inequality in the Distribution of Household Expenditure in Cameroon

In the literature, it is generally accepted that consumption is a more appropriate welfare measure than household income or salaries. This paper aims to investigate the evolution of expenditure inequality in Cameroon over the 1984-1996 period, with the help of Lorenz Curves, the Gini coefficient, and two entropy measures of inequality. Total expenditure inequality is decomposed into the within-groups and between-groups components using Theils decomposition techniques and household expenditure data derived from the 1984 and 1996 National household surveys (i.e. the 1983/1984 Household Consumption Budget (EBC) survey, and the 1996 Cameroonian Household Survey (ECAM1)). Decompositions are carried out according to the residence area (rural, semi-urban, and urban), stratum, age, educational level and the gender of the household head. Policy implications are discussed. --Inequality,Expenditure,Decomposition,Household Surveys,Cameroon

Working Paper 86 - A Review of Ex - ante Poverty Impact Assessments of Macroeconomic Policies in Cameroon and Ghana

This paper summarizes two extensive case studies of experiences with ex-ante poverty impact assessments of macroeconomic policies in Cameroon and Ghana during the last ten years. The paper provides a short description and critique of the studies and models that have been used in one way or the other for such assessments. It shows that much more needs to be done to provide policy makers with critical information to reduce poverty more effectively. The paper also reviews briefly the key institutional issues that constrain the more extensive analysis of the impact of macroeconomic policies on poverty, which are related to data constraints, capacity constraints, and power structures. The paper closes with a variety of recommendations, covering methodological, political, and data issues as well as suggestions for more evidence-based policy-making.

Endettement du Cameroun: Probl.mes et solutions

debt, HIPC, debt sustainability, Cameroon, Dette, All.gement de la dette, Initiative PPTE, Soutenabilit. de la dette, Cameroun

PerDiS: design, implementation, and use of a PERsistent DIstributed Store

International audienceThe PerDiS (Persistent Distributed Store) project addresses the issue of providing support for distributed collaborative engineering applications. We describe the design and implementation of the PerDiS platform, and its support for such applications. Collaborative engineering raises system issues related to the sharing of large volumes of fine-grain, complex objects across wide-area networks and administrative boundaries. PerDiS manages all these aspects in a well defined, integrated, and automatic way. Distributed application programming is simplified because it uses the same memory abstraction as in the centralized case. Porting an existing centralized program written in C or C++ is usually a matter of a few, well-isolated changes. We present some performance results from a proof-of-concept platform that runs a number of small, but real, distributed applications on Unix and Windows NT. These confirm that the PerDiS abstraction is well adapted to the targeted application area and that the overall performance is promising compared to alternative approache

Le rôle du corps dans l’apprentissage des lettres cursives en grande section

Many studies show that the letters knowledge is highly linked to the reading and writing level of pupils at the start of learning. So it seems important to find means of enhancing the development of that skill. The aim of this research project is to determine the effect of using the body on learning how to draw letters with 5 year-old pupils. A pre test - training- post test procedure has been used. The effects of three types of training have been compared : the paper/pencil training, the arm training (mobilizing brachial movement in space) and the arm-body training (urging both body movements and brachial movements in space on the outskirts of letters written on the floor). The results indicate that pupils who have benefited from the paper-pencil training improve the quality of their letter drawing and are able to write a larger amount of read-out letters than pupils who have been trained through the arm or arm/body techniques.Plusieurs études montrent que la connaissance des lettres est vivement corrélée au niveau de lecture et d’écriture des élèves au début de l’apprentissage. Il semble donc important de trouver des moyens favorisant le développement de cette connaissance. L’objectif de cette recherche est de déterminer les effets de l’utilisation du corps sur l’apprentissage des lettres cursives auprès d’élèves de grande section de maternelle. Une procédure de type pré-test – entraînement – post-test est utilisée. Les effets de trois types d’entraînements ont été comparés : un entraînement papier-crayon, un entraînement bras (mobilisant des mouvements brachiaux dans l’espace) et un entraînement bras-corps (sollicitant à la fois des déplacements corporels sur les contours de lettres tracées au sol et des mouvements brachiaux dans l’espace). Les résultats indiquent que les élèves qui ont bénéficié d’un entraînement papier-crayon améliorent la qualité du tracé des lettres et écrivent plus de lettres dictées que les élèves qui ont bénéficié des entraînements bras et bras-corps

Pro Poor Growth in Cameroon

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between economic growth, poverty and income distribution in Cameroon, using both the data derived from three Cameroonian household surveys and the Poverty Equivalent Growth Rate (PEGR) methodology developed by Kakwani et al. (2004), The study found that economic growth in Cameroon was pro poor over the period 1996–2007, which suggests that instead of increasing the economic growth rate alone, the poverty equivalent growth rate should also be maximized to achieve the poverty reduction objective, meaning that on the one hand, the growth rate should be boosted, and on the other, the distribution of income should also be concurrently improved. A decomposition of changes in poverty using the Kakwani (1997) approach reveal that the growth component dominates the redistribution component in the reduction of poverty. This suggests that the fall in absolute poverty over the survey period may be attributed to an increase in average household income, and not to the redistributive policies of the government