Income inequality and minimum consumption: implications for growth

We propose a model that recognizes hierarchical goods and income inequality among households. The model demonstrates that growth is impacted not by inequality per se, but "absolute" income distribution or the level of poverty underlying the income distribution. Specifically, when a large fraction of the population is below the threshold income necessary for subsistence, aggregate consumption is depressed. In low-income countries, high inequality of income retards consumption growth, whereas in high-income countries inequality may be neutral for growth. Cross-country regressions indicate a positive and significant relationship between the middle quintile share of income and aggregate consumption. In all cases analyzed, increasing income in the middle quintile increases consumption growthIncome distribution ; Consumption (Economics)

Evaluation de la charge polluante des rivières des eaux usées ménagères et pluviales dans la ville de Bukavu, République Démocratique du Congo

La présente étude porte sur l’évaluation de la charge polluante des rivières dans la ville de Bukavu. Les paramètres de pollution, mesurés dans cette étude sont la demande chimique en oxygène (DCO), l’azote total et le phosphore total, et la demande biochimique en oxygène (DBO5). Les valeurs de la DBO5 des rivières de Bukavu varient d’une rivière à l’autre dont la moyenne est comprise entre 620 mg/L et 1063 mg/L. Les valeurs moyennes de DCO varient entre 517 mg/L et 1747 mg/L. Ces valeurs de DCO et DBO5 sont très largement supérieures à la norme, qui indique une forte pollution car les résultats sont loin de la situation critique. Le débit a été mesuré systématiquement, ce qui a permis d’évaluer la charge polluante déversée dans le lac Kivu soit de 0,195 à 9,899 kg/j de DBO, de 0,393 à 22,581 kg/j de DCO, de 0,0045 à 0,3217 kg/j d’azote et 0,00015 à 0,0422 kg/j de phosphore. Une grande partie de matière organique est non biodégradable dans la rivière Wesha suite au rapport DCO/DBO5 = 2,4. Néanmoins, pour les restes des rivières leurs matières organiques sont biodégradables, ce qui indique que les rivières sont capables de se dépolluer pourvu que la quantité de décharges soit réduite. Pour la rivière Wesha il faudra investiguer la source de la pollution.Mots-clés: charge polluante, eaux usées ménagères, rivières, Bukavu, lac Kivu. Assessment of the charge polluting of the rivers, wast domestic flowing waters and vain streaning in the Bukavu city south kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo The present survey is about the assessment of the pollution load of the rivers in the city of Bukavu. The parameters of pollution, measured in this survey are the chemical demand in oxygen (DCO), the total nitrogen and the total phosphor, and the biochemical demand in oxygen (DBO5). The values of the DBO5 of the rivers of Bukavu vary from a river to the one of whose average is consisted between 620 mg/L and 1063 mg/L. The middle values of DCO vary between 517 mg/L and 1747 mg/L. These values of DCO and DBO5 are very extensively superior to the norm, which indicates a strong pollution because the results are far from the critical situation. The flow has been measured systematically, what permitted to value the pollution load poured in the Kivu lake is from 0,195 to 9,899 kg/j of DBO, of 0,393 to 22,581 kg/j of DCO, of 0,0045 to 0,3217 kg/j of nitrogen and 0,00015 to 0,0422 kg/j of phosphor. A big part of organic matter is non-biodegradable in the Wesha river following the DCO/DBO5 report = 2,4. Nevertheless, for the rests of the rivers their organic matters are biodegradable, what indicates that the rivers are capable of himself depolluted so long as the quantity of discharges is reduced. For the Wesha river it will need to study the source of the pollution.Keywords: pollution load, waters worn-out housewives, rivers, Bukavu, lake Kivu

First report of Rice yellow mottle virus on rice in Burundi

International audienceFirst Report of Rice yellow mottle virus on Rice in Burund

First Report of Rice yellow mottle virus in rice in Malawi

International audienceFirst report of Rice yellow mottle virus in rice in Malaw

The effects of financialisation and financial development on investment: Evidence from firm-level data in Europe

In this paper we estimate the effects of financialization on physical investment in selected western European countries using panel data based on the balance-sheets of publicly listed non-financial companies (NFCs) supplied by Worldscope for the period 1995-2015. We find robust evidence of an adverse effect of both financial payments (interests and dividends) and financial incomes on investment in fixed assets by the NFCs. This finding is robust for both the pool of all Western European firms and single country estimations. The negative impacts of financial incomes are non-linear with respect to the companies’ size: financial incomes crowd-out investment in large companies, and have a positive effect on the investment of only small, relatively more credit-constrained companies. Moreover, we find that a higher degree of financial development is associated with a stronger negative effect of financial incomes on companies’ investment. This finding challenges the common wisdom on ‘finance-growth nexus’. Our findings support the ‘financialization thesis’ that the increasing orientation of the non-financial sector towards financial activities is ultimately leading to lower physical investment, hence to stagnant or fragile growth, as well as long term stagnation in productivity

The leading digit distribution of the worldwide Illicit Financial Flows

Benford's law states that in data sets from different phenomena leading digits tend to be distributed logarithmically such that the numbers beginning with smaller digits occur more often than those with larger ones. Particularly, the law is known to hold for different types of financial data. The Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) exiting the developing countries are frequently discussed as hidden resources which could have been otherwise properly utilized for their development. We investigate here the distribution of the leading digits in the recent data on estimates of IFFs to look for the existence of a pattern as predicted by Benford's law and establish that the frequency of occurrence of the leading digits in these estimates does closely follow the law.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables, additional data analyi