Rational Asymmetric Development, Piketty and the Spirit of Poverty in Africa

The study extends the implications of Piketty’s celebrated literature from developed countries to the nexus between developed nations and African countries by building on responses from Rogoff (2014) & Stiglitz (2014), post Washington Consensus paradigms and underpinnings from Solow-Swan & Boyce-Fofack-Ndikumana. The central argument presented is that the inequality problem is at the heart of rational asymmetric development between rich and poor countries. Piketty has shown that inequality increases when the return of capital is higher than the growth rate, because the poor cannot catch-up with the rich. We argue that, when the return of political economy (or capitalism-fuelled illicit capital flight) is higher than the growth rate in African countries, inequality in development increases and African may not catch-up with the developed world. As an ideal solution, Piketty has proposed progressive income taxation based on automatic exchange of bank information. The ideal analogy proposed in tackling the spirit of African poverty is a holistic commitment to fighting illicit capital flight based on automatic exchange of bank information. Hence, contrary to theoretical underpinnings of exogenous growth models, catch-up may not be so apparent. Implications for the corresponding upward bias in endogenous development and catch-up literature are discussed

Understanding the role of Cu on the work-hardening and strain-rate sensitivity of 6xxx alloys

Early Career Award plenary sessionInternational audienc

Asymmetry of strain rate sensitivity between up-and down-changes in 6000 series Aluminium alloys of varying Si content

International audienceIncreasing demand for a reduction in fuel emissions in passenger vehicles has generated the need for lighter weight materials to be used in automobile manufacture for body-in-white applications. Aluminium alloys in the 6000-series, containing Mg and Si are ideal candidates for these applications but lack the formability found in commonly used steels, providing a need to more fully understand the factors influencing the formability of these alloys at high strains. Conventionally, a high strain rate sensitivity (SRS) is tied to increased formability because it retards the increase in the local strain rate found in the diffuse neck interior. However, most experimental work neglects that the regions exterior to the neck will undergo a local decrease in the strain rate which causes a corresponding material softening. Observations of an asymmetry between up-change and down-change SRS of these alloys in the natural aged condition show that different mechanisms are controlling the SRS depending on the direction of rate change. Following a characterization of the state of clustering by differential scanning calorimetry, continuous tensile and precision strain rate sensitivity testing results are presented, elucidating the differences between the up-change and down-change SRS tests. It is shown that these differences are due to the activation of different thermal obstacles during the two directions of rate changes. The role of a change in Si content on the mechanical properties is explored and its suspected role on the asymmetric SRS is discussed