Private Capital Flows to Emerging-Market Economies

This article explores the evolution of capital flows to emerging markets over the last 30 years with emphasis on the past decade. Capital markets in emerging-market economies have evolved substantially over the period, becoming increasingly deep and resilient. The author looks at how capital flows to these countries have changed in terms of magnitude, geographical distribution, the financial instruments used, and the country of origin. He also examines how changes in the investor base have affected these flows and reviews the factors underlying the growth of private capital flows in the 1990s.

The impact of infrastructure spending in Sub-Saharan Africa : a CGE modeling approach

The authors constructed a standard computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to explore the economic impact of increased spending on infrastructure in six African countries: Benin, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda. The basic elements of the model are drawn from EXTER, adjusted to accommodate infrastructure externalities. Seven sectors were considered: food crop agriculture, export agriculture, mining and oil, manufacturing, construction, private services, and public services. Four sets of simulations were conducted: baseline nonproductive investments, roads, electricity, and telecoms. For each set of simulations, five funding schemes were considered: reduced public expenditure; increased value-added taxes; increased import duties; funding from foreign aid; and increased income taxes. In general, the funding schemes had similar qualitative and quantitative effects on macro variables. For road and electricity investment, there were relatively large quantitative differences and some qualitative differences among funding schemes at the macro level. Sectoral analysis revealed further disparities among countries and investment types. The same type of investment with the same funding sources had varying effects depending on the economic structure of the sector in question. The authors find that few sectors are purely tradable or non-tradable, having instead variable degrees of openness to trade. If the current account needs to be balanced, funding investment through foreign aid produces the strongest sectoral effects because strong price and nominal exchange rate adjustments are needed to clear the current account balance. In addition, the capital/labor ratio of each sector plays an important role in determining its winners and losers.Economic Theory&Research,Debt Markets,Emerging Markets,Investment and Investment Climate,Public Sector Expenditure Policy

Metas de inflación y tipos de cambio flexibles en economías emergentes

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Vers une économie "humaine" ? Desroche, Lebret, Lefebvre, Mounier, Perroux, au prisme de notre temps

National audienceCet ouvrage offre un regard indisciplinaire sur cinq intellectuels liés entre eux et inspirés à la fois par le christianisme et le marxisme : Henri Desroche (1914-1994), Louis-Joseph Lebret (1897-1966), Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991), Emmanuel Mounier (1905-1950) et François Perroux (1903-1987). Par delà leurs différences, ils partagent l’idée selon laquelle il serait possible d’humaniser l’économie. Leurs thèses et leurs pratiques s’enracinent dans l’histoire. Elles invitent à réfléchir aux relations entre pensée et action, au rôle des institutions pour réduire les conflits, à l’insuffisance de l’idée de croissance par rapport à l’idée de développement appliquée à toutes les dimensions de l’être humain. Elles éclairent la diversité des articulations possibles entre l’individu et le collectif, la personne et la communauté. Elles incitent à s’interroger sur l’idée même d’économie. Ces intellectuels ont cherché à jouer un rôle auprès des institutions, avant la guerre, pendant la guerre (y compris, pour certains, sous Vichy), après la guerre où ils ont eu toute leur place. L’étude de la genèse de leurs conceptions, de la portée et des limites de leurs actions, de leurs aveuglements ou de leurs réussites, permet de repenser les moyens politiques de lutter, aujourd’hui, contre l’inhumanité de l’économie

Vers une économie "humaine" ? Desroche, Lebret, Lefebvre, Mounier, Perroux, au prisme de notre temps

National audienceCet ouvrage offre un regard indisciplinaire sur cinq intellectuels liés entre eux et inspirés à la fois par le christianisme et le marxisme : Henri Desroche (1914-1994), Louis-Joseph Lebret (1897-1966), Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991), Emmanuel Mounier (1905-1950) et François Perroux (1903-1987). Par delà leurs différences, ils partagent l’idée selon laquelle il serait possible d’humaniser l’économie. Leurs thèses et leurs pratiques s’enracinent dans l’histoire. Elles invitent à réfléchir aux relations entre pensée et action, au rôle des institutions pour réduire les conflits, à l’insuffisance de l’idée de croissance par rapport à l’idée de développement appliquée à toutes les dimensions de l’être humain. Elles éclairent la diversité des articulations possibles entre l’individu et le collectif, la personne et la communauté. Elles incitent à s’interroger sur l’idée même d’économie. Ces intellectuels ont cherché à jouer un rôle auprès des institutions, avant la guerre, pendant la guerre (y compris, pour certains, sous Vichy), après la guerre où ils ont eu toute leur place. L’étude de la genèse de leurs conceptions, de la portée et des limites de leurs actions, de leurs aveuglements ou de leurs réussites, permet de repenser les moyens politiques de lutter, aujourd’hui, contre l’inhumanité de l’économie

Biocompatible polymer-assisted dispersion of multi walled carbon nanotubes in water, application to the investigation of their ecotoxicity using Xenopus laevis amphibian larvae

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) tend to readily agglomerate and settle down in water, while the adsorption of compounds present in natural aquatic media could enhance their dispersion and stabilization in the water column. We designed a new exposure protocol to compare the biological responses of Xenopus laevis larvae exposed in semi-static conditions to size-reduced agglomerates of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in suspension in the water column and/or to larger agglomerates. Suspensions were prepared using a combination of a non-covalent functionalization with a non-toxic polymer (either carboxymethylcellulose, CMC, or gum arabic, GA) and mechanical dispersion methods (mainly ultrasonication). The ingestion of agglomerates which have settled down was incriminated in the disruption of the intestinal transit and the assimilation of nutrients, leading to acute and chronic toxicities at the highest tested concentrations. Rise in mortality, decrease in the growth rate and induction of genotoxicity from low concentrations (1 mg/L in the presence of CMC) were evidenced in presence of suspended MWCNTs in the water column. The biological responses seemed to be modulated when GA, a potential antioxidant, was used. We hypothesized that MWCNTs should interfere mainly at the surface of the gills, acting as a potential respiratory toxicant and generally inducing indirect effects

Postmortem Internal Gas Reservoir Monitoring Using GC×GC-HRTOF-MS

Forensic investigations often require postmortem examination of a body. However, the collection of evidence during autopsy is often destructive, meaning that the body can no longer be examined in its original state. In order to obtain an internal image of the body, whole body postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) has proven to be a valuable non-destructive tool and is currently used in medicolegal centers. PMCT can also be used to visually locate gas reservoirs inside a cadaver, which upon analysis can provide useful information regarding very volatile compounds that are produced after death. However, the non-targeted profiling of all potential volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in these reservoirs has never been attempted. The aim of this study was to investigate the VOC profile of these reservoirs and to evaluate potential uses of such information to document circumstances surrounding death, cause of death and body taphonomy. Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight high-resolution mass spectrometry (GCxGC-HRTOF-MS) was used for VOC measurements. This study demonstrated that the chemical composition of VOCs within the gas reservoirs differed between locations within a single body but also between individuals. In the future, this work could be expanded to investigate a novel, non-destructive cadaver screening approach prior to full autopsy procedures

Effects of herbicide mixtures on freshwater microalgae with the potential effect of a safener

International audienceFreshwater microalgae are primary producers and cosmopolitan species subjected to the effects of herbicides. In this work, the in vitro algal growth inhibitory effects of 11 agrochemicals (9 herbicides, 1 metabolite, and 1 safener) were quantified. Chemical compounds were applied singly and in specific mixtures. Three species were used in axenic condition: the green alga Desmodesmus subspicatus (Chodat), the diatoms Nitzschia palea (Kützing) W. Smith and Navicula pelliculosa (Kützing) Hilse. When exposed to single compounds, N. palea and N. pelliculosa were only sensitive to atrazine/desethylatrazine and the safener benoxacor (BE), respectively. D. subspicatus was equally sensitive to four herbicides including atrazine and its metabolite and significantly more sensitive to iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium (IODO). The mixture of these five compounds induced a significantly higher growth inhibition of about 1.5-fold than IODO alone, which could be attributed to the four other herbicides. The mixture of all compounds was twofold less toxic than IODO on D. subspicatus. A halogen atom is present in IODO as in the herbicides to which the safener BE À known to induce glutathione-S-transferases À is associated in agrochemical preparations. We then showed that IODO was less toxic when combined with non-toxic concentrations of BE. These results indicated that the toxicity of the most active herbicide studied was decreased by a non-herbicide compound present in agrochemical formulations of other herbicides. These results suggest the importance to take into account the chemistry and the mechanisms of action for each compound in a risk assessment approach of a complex mixture