Who deserves aid? Equality of opportunity, international aid and poverty reduction

We build and implement a normative procedure to allocate international aid based on equality of opportunity concerning the risk of poverty. This is an alternative to Collier and Dollar's proposal (2001) which stresses the impact of aid on worldwide poverty reduction. The big problem with their approach, as regards distributive justice, is that it leaves very great inequality in poverty risk between inhabitants of countries with widely varying structural disadvantages. We draw on post-welfarist theories of social justice, especially those of John Roemer. However our proposal is very different to that of Llavador and Roemer (2001), which has serious methodological errors and reaches contradictory conclusions. Our proposed allocations, like those of Collier and Dollar, differ from current aid allocation by giving more to the poorest countries. Apart from this agreement, our equality of opportunity principle takes account of structural disadvantages to growth rather than quality of past policies. Our kind of allocation shares out poverty risks much more fairly among the world's population, while reducing global poverty almost as effectively as Collier and Dollar's

Анотації

In this paper, we compare effective aid allocation with two normative allocations aimed at optimally reducing poverty : one based on efficiency and selectivity (Collier and Dollar, 2001) and another based on equality of opportunity (Cogneau and Naudet, 2007). Over the 1996-2004 period, effective aid allocation is shown to be more correlated with an equal-opportunity allocation. Econometric analysis of the respective influence of determinants characterizing the two optimal allocations confirms that effective aid allocation is closer to the one based on equality of opportunity, even though some differences appear between donors when examined separately.Cet article compare l’allocation réelle de l’aide à deux allocations normatives en termes de réduction optimale de la pauvreté : l’une fondée sur un principe d’efficacité et de sélectivité (Collier et Dollar , 2001 ) et l’autre sur l’égalité des chances (Cogneau et Naudet , 2007). Sur la période 1996-2004, l’allocation observée de l’aide s’avère mieux corrélée à une allocation suivant un principe d’égalité des chances devant le risque de pauvreté. De surcroît, l’analyse économétrique de l’influence des différents facteurs déterminant les allocations normatives confirme que l’allocation observée est plus proche d’une allocation selon l’égalité des chances, même si des différences apparaissent entre certains bailleurs de fonds pris individuellement.Naudet Jean-David, Cogneau Denis, Chauvet Lisa. Sélectivité et égalité des chances dans l’allocation de l’aide internationale. Une analyse de la dernière décennie. In: Économie & prévision, n°186, 2008-5. Économie du développement et de la transition, sous la direction de Pierre Malgrange et Patrick Plane. pp. 23-38

Development, A question of Opportunity. A critique of the 2006 World Development Report, Equity and Development

The World Bank’s World Development Report 2006 addresses Equity and Development. It defines equity as respect for equal opportunities combined with the avoidance of absolute deprivation. Even though justice theories have long been interested in equity (given that equality of opportunity is one of the recognised values of Western society), it has hitherto remained a marginal issue in development economics. Our critique presents a detailed analysis of this report in the light of recent economic studies on this subject and endeavours to place it in the context of the evolution of World Bank thinking and policies. The first part illustrates the wealth of this concept, with its downside being that it is hard to accurately define. The second part demonstrates the gap between the prospects opened up by the enlargement of the development goals beyond poverty reduction and the report’s policy recommendations, which are generally an extension of the World Bank’s traditional analyses. The future of the equity concept for development policy-making could be closely dependent on the development community’s ability to take on board both all its complexity and wealth.

AMRA: Augmented Reality Assistance for Train Maintenance Tasks

International audienceThe AMRA project, carried out by a consortium including industrials and research partners, aims at implementing an Augmented Reality (AR) system for mobile use in industrial applications such as train maintenance and repairs in industrial sites. The adopted solution is a video see-through system where a tablet-PC is used as an augmented window. The overall architecture of a prototype is unfolded, and its key points are detailed. For instance, a visual registration system has been developed to accurately overlay a video stream with information. A robust, real time registration, using a single camera tied to the tablet-PC, is performed. Besides, a hierarchical description of maintenance procedure is set up and enriched by new media such as photos, video and/or 3D models. These 3D models have been specially tailored to meet maintenance tasks requirements. The obtained multimedia contents allow easy access to technical documentation through a man machine interface managing a multimedia engine. All these features have been combined in the AMRA prototype which have been evaluated by a maintenance operator

Les « guignols de l’info ». Réflexions sur la fragilité de l’information statistique

Introduction Toute personne ayant eu à travailler dans des contextes africains reconnaîtra volontiers que l’information y constitue un problème permanent. Peu fiable, circulant difficilement, rarement globale, elle est une source constante de difficultés. Pourtant, curieusement, cette insuffisante maîtrise de l’information ne semble pas avoir d’effet sur la capacité que les institutions et analystes concernés ont à évaluer les performances, à diagnostiquer les problèmes et surtout à proposer ..

Vingt ans d'aide au Sahel. Un bilan pour envisager la coopération de la génération à venir

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L’intendance ne suit pas. Introduction à un diagnostic critique des méthodes et des instruments de l’aide au Sahel

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