Academic literature on the topic 'Finances – Gabon'

SMMEs provide an indispensable framework for addressing unemployment, poverty and boosting the economy of a country. This report was impelled by the need to create and sustain enterprises within the hotels and restaurant sub-sector of the tourism industry in Libreville, Gabon. A quantitative methodology was embraced to disperse seventy self-administered questionnaires to owners and managers of hotels and restaurants. The results demonstrate that the key components which lead to the failure or non-sustainability of businesses include: limited access to start-up finance required to cover start-up and growth cost, the low return on investment, as well as the mismanagement of businesses. Given that job creation remains a dependable method for diminishing unemployment and poverty, establishing and sustaining businesses in Libreville would be a step in the right direction in Gabon. Keywords: venture creation, enterprise development, entrepreneurship challenges, Libreville. JEL Classification: M13, L26, L83

This paper examines the relationship between financial development, economic growth and poverty reduction in nine African countries for the period 1970-2013. It uses the ARDL bounds testing approach. The results show evidence of long-run relationship among the variables in height countries with GDP and financial deepening having a positive effect on poverty reduction in five countries (Benin, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon and South Africa), and poverty reduction having a positive effect on economic growth in three countries (Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal). The study also reveals bidirectional long-run causality between economic growth and poverty reduction in Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon and South Africa, and bidirectional long-run causality between finance and poverty reduction in Benin, Cameroon and South Africa. These findings suggest that policies aimed at increasing economic growth and improving access to credit would reduce poverty but also that measures of poverty reduction would lead to economic growth and financial deepening in these countries.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the causal relationship between insurance penetration and economic growth in eight selected African countries. Design/methodology/approach – The auto-regressive distributed lags bounds approach to cointegration is employed on annual time-series data from 1990 to 2010 to test the causal relationship between insurance and economic growth in Algeria, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa. The ratio of life and non-life insurance premiums to gross domestic product are employed as proxies for insurance market development. Findings – The results of the bound test shows a long-run relationship between insurance market activities and economic growth for Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa. Causality analysis within the vector error correction model indicates a uni-directional causality from insurance market development to economic growth except for Morocco where there is evidence of a bi-directional causality. Causality within the vector autoregressive framework also provides evidence of a uni-directional causality for Algeria and Madagascar to support the “supply-leading” hypothesis while mixed causality was found for Gabon. Practical implications – This findings provides policy direction for governments and regulatory authorities for developing insurance market in the sample countries. Originality/value – This is the first study to examine the finance-growth relationship from the perspective of insurance markets in a cross-section of African countries.

Considered as an axiomatic basis of classical, neoclassical, and monetarist theories, the long-run money neutrality assumption does not always seem to be verified. Indeed, in our view, the money, in the sense of M2, can constitute a long-run channel of growth transmission. Thus, this paper examines the long-term relationship among money supply (M2), income (GDP), and prices (CPI). The subprime crisis in 2007 has shown that the demand for money does not only meet motives of transaction, precaution, and speculation but also of fictional or quasi-fictional future demands due to the fact that they are created without real counterparts. The capacity of production systems in developed countries to respond to increases in money supply by creating more wealth, involves the assumption of money neutrality in the long-run. However, in developing countries, the excess of money supply may lead to inflation trends. The present study has confirmed the long-term non-neutrality of money supply in the USA, and its neutrality in Gabon and Morocco.

L'Afrique intertropicale sert de cadre à notre réflexion bien que les autres continents tropicaux regorgent d'exemples tout aussi édifiants. Forêt naturelle et forêt plantée ont bien souvent été considérées comme deux pôles opposés de la foresterie, pôles entre lesquels les projets de développement effectuent un mouvement de balancier. Déjà en 1953, Alba1 écrivait : " Il semble inutile d'opposer la sylviculture basée sur la régénération naturelle et celle basée sur la régénération artificielle. D'une part, cela risque d'entraîner des querelles qui, quoique faites sur un ton toujours extrêmement courtois, peuvent blesser inutilement les uns et les autres qui croient le plus souvent, et en toute bonne foi, il faut bien le dire, détenir la vérité en la matière, ce dont on ne saurait les blâmer. " Cette mise en garde n'a pas empêché les deux " clans " d'être plus souvent en opposition qu'en synergie. Dans les années 1960-1970, le balancier était du côté des plantations. C'était l'époque des grands programmes de reboisement, teck en Afrique francophone : gmélina au Mali, pins à Madagascar et okoumé au Gabon dans les années 1950- 1960, puis des grands reboisements périurbains des années 1970 pour le bois énergie. Ces projets étatiques onéreux se sont avérés peu rentables en raison des faibles prix du bois de forêt naturelle pratiqués sur les marchés locaux, ce qui a découragé les bailleurs de fonds. Les plantations sont un investissement à long terme alors que le financement des projets est à court ou moyen terme. Même lorsque les premières rentrées financières des plantations arrivent après six à sept ans (pour le bois de trituration), la faible valeur marchande de ce bois fait que plusieurs rotations sont nécessaires pour rentabiliser l'investissement. Pour les bois d'oeuvre, la révolution est de plusieurs décennies, incompatible avec les cycles des bailleurs de fonds. Ceux-ci considèrent généralement que l'investissement forestier s'arrête quelques années après la plantation et les premiers entretiens. Pourtant, il est nécessaire de financer les travaux ultérieurs pour obtenir in fine des bois de haute qualité à forte valeur marchande car les élagages de pénétration et la première éclaircie fournissent des bois de faibles dimensions qui sont abandonnés sur place en l'absence d'usine de trituration, ce qui est le cas en Afrique. Les éclaircies suivantes produisent des perches et des piquets dont la vente ne finance au mieux que le coût des travaux. Cette absence de retour financier rapide a généré, dans les années 1980, des problèmes au sein des programmes nationaux de reboisement. Par exemple, la Société de développement des forêts ivoiriennes a, faute de pouvoir vendre les premières éclaircies, cessé de planter des tecks pendant plusieurs années, jusqu'au jour où des acheteurs étrangers se sont intéressés à ces produits. À Madagascar, le bailleur de fonds voulait arrêter de financer les plantations de pins initialement destinées à la pâte à papier ; une longue négociation permit de modifier l'objectif du projet et de faire comprendre que les éclaircies et l'élagage étaient indispensables à la production d'un bois de qualité à haute valeur commerciale, et d'obtenir la poursuite du financement des travaux : ce n'est que 26 ans après les premières plantations de pins que les plantations ont commencé à s'autofinancer. Les calculs financiers montrent de très faibles taux de rentabilité interne des plantations ; mais ces calculs ne prennent pas en compte les emplois créés dans les plantations ni le développement des filières de transformation et de commercialisation en aval. (Résumé d'auteur)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the proposed eco currency union has sufficient business cycle synchronization among its members to avoid problems such as those experienced in the last several years by countries in the eurozone. This monetary union would potentially include 18 countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo – which collectively have a GDP of over 744 billion dollars and a population of over 300 million people. Design/methodology/approach The authors will apply some recently created econometric tools that were developed specifically to investigate business cycle synchronization in the eurozone. These tools – denoted synchronicity and similarity – overcome some of the limitations of previous studies which have used vector autoregressions and suffered simultaneity bias as a result. Findings The different measures employed suggest that the potential members of the eco exhibit a very low level of synchronization. Nigeria in particular, which is heavily dependent on oil, as are some, but not all potential members, would be the largest member, and exhibits a very low level of synchronization with other prospective eco member nations. Finally, preliminary evidence from several countries which have joined the existing African currency unions does not indicate that the act of joining a currency union improves synchronization, and this result contradicts the “endogenous optimal currency area” hypothesis. Research limitations/implications Like previous studies on the topic, the authors rely on the available data. The number of observations is more limited than would be optimal. Practical implications The results would strongly caution against the creation of the eco currency union, as members appear even less ready for monetary integration than countries in the eurozone did. Originality/value This is the first study to apply the synchronicity and similarity tools to the prospective West African eco nations.

The debate concerning the Head of the Jews (ra'is al-yahud) in the Fatimid kingdom, which has interested researchers since the late nineteenth century, has yet to reach a final conclusion. Today's researchers usually argue that this position was established in Egypt at the end of the eleventh century with the final fall of the Palestinian Yeshiva; prior to this the Head of the Jews was the gaon of Palestine, appointed by the Fatimid Imam. More recently a new argument has emerged, re-embracing the approach of J. Mann, who argued that the position of the Head of the Jews was established at the beginning of Fatimid rule (late tenth century), and the person to hold the position was a Jewish courtier from the field of finance or medicine, appointed by the Imam to be the supreme leader for all Jews in the Fatimid kingdom: Rabbanites, Karaites and Samaritans. This old–new notion is yet to be clearly proven. Such views are mainly supported by circumstantial analysis of logical arguments that arise from the Geniza documents, without real written proof, but the Geniza is known for surprises and it is possible that we will soon find unequivocal proof to show that the Head of the Jews in the Fatimid kingdom was indeed a Jewish courtier appointed by the Imam, since the beginning of the Fatimid rule over Egypt, Palestine and Syria at the end of the tenth century.

Although I'm a rich white guy, I'm also a feminist anti-racism activist who fights for the rights of the poor and oppressed. (Carl Kenner)Systemic bias is a scourge to the pillar of neutrality. (Cerejota)Count me in. Let's leave the bias to the mainstream media. (Orcar967)Because this is so important. (CuttingEdge)These are a handful of comments posted by online editors who have banded together in a virtual coalition to combat Western bias on the world’s largest digital encyclopedia, Wikipedia. This collective action by Wikipedians both acknowledges the inherent inequalities of a user-controlled information project like Wikpedia and highlights the potential for progressive change within that same project. These community members are taking the responsibility of social change into their own hands (or more aptly, their own keyboards).In recent years much research has emerged on Wikipedia from varying fields, ranging from computer science, to business and information systems, to the social sciences. While critical at times of Wikipedia’s growth, governance, and influence, most of this work observes with optimism that barriers to improvement are not firmly structural, but rather they are socially constructed, leaving open the possibility of important and lasting change for the better.WikiProject: Countering Systemic Bias (WP:CSB) considers one such collective effort. Close to 350 editors have signed on to the project, which began in 2004 and itself emerged from a similar project named CROSSBOW, or the “Committee Regarding Overcoming Serious Systemic Bias on Wikipedia.” As a WikiProject, the term used for a loose group of editors who collaborate around a particular topic, these editors work within the Wikipedia site and collectively create a social network that is unified around one central aim—representing the un- and underrepresented—and yet they are bound by no particular unified set of interests. The first stage of a multi-method study, this paper looks at a snapshot of WP:CSB’s activity from both content analysis and social network perspectives to discover “who” geographically this coalition of the unrepresented is inserting into the digital annals of Wikipedia.Wikipedia and WikipediansDeveloped in 2001 by Internet entrepreneur Jimmy Wales and academic Larry Sanger, Wikipedia is an online collaborative encyclopedia hosting articles in nearly 250 languages (Cohen). The English-language Wikipedia contains over 3.2 million articles, each of which is created, edited, and updated solely by users (Wikipedia “Welcome”). At the time of this study, Alexa, a website tracking organisation, ranked Wikipedia as the 6th most accessed site on the Internet. Unlike the five sites ahead of it though—Google, Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube (owned by Google), and live.com (owned by Microsoft)—all of which are multibillion-dollar businesses that deal more with information aggregation than information production, Wikipedia is a non-profit that operates on less than $500,000 a year and staffs only a dozen paid employees (Lih). Wikipedia is financed and supported by the WikiMedia Foundation, a charitable umbrella organisation with an annual budget of $4.6 million, mainly funded by donations (Middleton).Wikipedia editors and contributors have the option of creating a user profile and participating via a username, or they may participate anonymously, with only an IP address representing their actions. Despite the option for total anonymity, many Wikipedians have chosen to visibly engage in this online community (Ayers, Matthews, and Yates; Bruns; Lih), and researchers across disciplines are studying the motivations of these new online collectives (Kane, Majchrzak, Johnson, and Chenisern; Oreg and Nov). The motivations of open source software contributors, such as UNIX programmers and programming groups, have been shown to be complex and tied to both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, including online reputation, self-satisfaction and enjoyment, and obligation to a greater common good (Hertel, Niedner, and Herrmann; Osterloh and Rota). Investigation into why Wikipedians edit has indicated multiple motivations as well, with community engagement, task enjoyment, and information sharing among the most significant (Schroer and Hertel). Additionally, Wikipedians seem to be taking up the cause of generativity (a concern for the ongoing health and openness of the Internet’s infrastructures) that Jonathan Zittrain notably called for in The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It. Governance and ControlAlthough the technical infrastructure of Wikipedia is built to support and perhaps encourage an equal distribution of power on the site, Wikipedia is not a land of “anything goes.” The popular press has covered recent efforts by the site to reduce vandalism through a layer of editorial review (Cohen), a tightening of control cited as a possible reason for the recent dip in the number of active editors (Edwards). A number of regulations are already in place that prevent the open editing of certain articles and pages, such as the site’s disclaimers and pages that have suffered large amounts of vandalism. Editing wars can also cause temporary restrictions to editing, and Ayers, Matthews, and Yates point out that these wars can happen anywhere, even to Burt Reynold’s page.Academic studies have begun to explore the governance and control that has developed in the Wikipedia community, generally highlighting how order is maintained not through particular actors, but through established procedures and norms. Konieczny tested whether Wikipedia’s evolution can be defined by Michels’ Iron Law of Oligopoly, which predicts that the everyday operations of any organisation cannot be run by a mass of members, and ultimately control falls into the hands of the few. Through exploring a particular WikiProject on information validation, he concludes:There are few indicators of an oligarchy having power on Wikipedia, and few trends of a change in this situation. The high level of empowerment of individual Wikipedia editors with regard to policy making, the ease of communication, and the high dedication to ideals of contributors succeed in making Wikipedia an atypical organization, quite resilient to the Iron Law. (189)Butler, Joyce, and Pike support this assertion, though they emphasise that instead of oligarchy, control becomes encapsulated in a wide variety of structures, policies, and procedures that guide involvement with the site. A virtual “bureaucracy” emerges, but one that should not be viewed with the negative connotation often associated with the term.Other work considers control on Wikipedia through the framework of commons governance, where “peer production depends on individual action that is self-selected and decentralized rather than hierarchically assigned. Individuals make their own choices with regard to resources managed as a commons” (Viegas, Wattenberg and McKeon). The need for quality standards and quality control largely dictate this commons governance, though interviewing Wikipedians with various levels of responsibility revealed that policies and procedures are only as good as those who maintain them. Forte, Larco, and Bruckman argue “the Wikipedia community has remained healthy in large part due to the continued presence of ‘old-timers’ who carry a set of social norms and organizational ideals with them into every WikiProject, committee, and local process in which they take part” (71). Thus governance on Wikipedia is a strong representation of a democratic ideal, where actors and policies are closely tied in their evolution. Transparency, Content, and BiasThe issue of transparency has proved to be a double-edged sword for Wikipedia and Wikipedians. The goal of a collective body of knowledge created by all—the “expert” and the “amateur”—can only be upheld if equal access to page creation and development is allotted to everyone, including those who prefer anonymity. And yet this very option for anonymity, or even worse, false identities, has been a sore subject for some in the Wikipedia community as well as a source of concern for some scholars (Santana and Wood). The case of a 24-year old college dropout who represented himself as a multiple Ph.D.-holding theology scholar and edited over 16,000 articles brought these issues into the public spotlight in 2007 (Doran; Elsworth). Wikipedia itself has set up standards for content that include expectations of a neutral point of view, verifiability of information, and the publishing of no original research, but Santana and Wood argue that self-policing of these policies is not adequate:The principle of managerial discretion requires that every actor act from a sense of duty to exercise moral autonomy and choice in responsible ways. When Wikipedia’s editors and administrators remain anonymous, this criterion is simply not met. It is assumed that everyone is behaving responsibly within the Wikipedia system, but there are no monitoring or control mechanisms to make sure that this is so, and there is ample evidence that it is not so. (141) At the theoretical level, some downplay these concerns of transparency and autonomy as logistical issues in lieu of the potential for information systems to support rational discourse and emancipatory forms of communication (Hansen, Berente, and Lyytinen), but others worry that the questionable “realities” created on Wikipedia will become truths once circulated to all areas of the Web (Langlois and Elmer). With the number of articles on the English-language version of Wikipedia reaching well into the millions, the task of mapping and assessing content has become a tremendous endeavour, one mostly taken on by information systems experts. Kittur, Chi, and Suh have used Wikipedia’s existing hierarchical categorisation structure to map change in the site’s content over the past few years. Their work revealed that in early 2008 “Culture and the arts” was the most dominant category of content on Wikipedia, representing nearly 30% of total content. People (15%) and geographical locations (14%) represent the next largest categories, while the natural and physical sciences showed the greatest increase in volume between 2006 and 2008 (+213%D, with “Culture and the arts” close behind at +210%D). This data may indicate that contributing to Wikipedia, and thus spreading knowledge, is growing amongst the academic community while maintaining its importance to the greater popular culture-minded community. Further work by Kittur and Kraut has explored the collaborative process of content creation, finding that too many editors on a particular page can reduce the quality of content, even when a project is well coordinated.Bias in Wikipedia content is a generally acknowledged and somewhat conflicted subject (Giles; Johnson; McHenry). The Wikipedia community has created numerous articles and pages within the site to define and discuss the problem. Citing a survey conducted by the University of Würzburg, Germany, the “Wikipedia:Systemic bias” page describes the average Wikipedian as:MaleTechnically inclinedFormally educatedAn English speakerWhiteAged 15-49From a majority Christian countryFrom a developed nationFrom the Northern HemisphereLikely a white-collar worker or studentBias in content is thought to be perpetuated by this demographic of contributor, and the “founder effect,” a concept from genetics, linking the original contributors to this same demographic has been used to explain the origins of certain biases. Wikipedia’s “About” page discusses the issue as well, in the context of the open platform’s strengths and weaknesses:in practice editing will be performed by a certain demographic (younger rather than older, male rather than female, rich enough to afford a computer rather than poor, etc.) and may, therefore, show some bias. Some topics may not be covered well, while others may be covered in great depth. No educated arguments against this inherent bias have been advanced.Royal and Kapila’s study of Wikipedia content tested some of these assertions, finding identifiable bias in both their purposive and random sampling. They conclude that bias favoring larger countries is positively correlated with the size of the country’s Internet population, and corporations with larger revenues work in much the same way, garnering more coverage on the site. The researchers remind us that Wikipedia is “more a socially produced document than a value-free information source” (Royal & Kapila).WikiProject: Countering Systemic BiasAs a coalition of current Wikipedia editors, the WikiProject: Countering Systemic Bias (WP:CSB) attempts to counter trends in content production and points of view deemed harmful to the democratic ideals of a valueless, open online encyclopedia. WP:CBS’s mission is not one of policing the site, but rather deepening it:Generally, this project concentrates upon remedying omissions (entire topics, or particular sub-topics in extant articles) rather than on either (1) protesting inappropriate inclusions, or (2) trying to remedy issues of how material is presented. Thus, the first question is "What haven't we covered yet?", rather than "how should we change the existing coverage?" (Wikipedia, “Countering”)The project lays out a number of content areas lacking adequate representation, geographically highlighting the dearth in coverage of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and parts of Eastern Europe. WP:CSB also includes a “members” page that editors can sign to show their support, along with space to voice their opinions on the problem of bias on Wikipedia (the quotations at the beginning of this paper are taken from this “members” page). At the time of this study, 329 editors had self-selected and self-identified as members of WP:CSB, and this group constitutes the population sample for the current study. To explore the extent to which WP:CSB addressed these self-identified areas for improvement, each editor’s last 50 edits were coded for their primary geographical country of interest, as well as the conceptual category of the page itself (“P” for person/people, “L” for location, “I” for idea/concept, “T” for object/thing, or “NA” for indeterminate). For example, edits to the Wikipedia page for a single person like Tony Abbott (Australian federal opposition leader) were coded “Australia, P”, while an edit for a group of people like the Manchester United football team would be coded “England, P”. Coding was based on information obtained from the header paragraphs of each article’s Wikipedia page. After coding was completed, corresponding information on each country’s associated continent was added to the dataset, based on the United Nations Statistics Division listing.A total of 15,616 edits were coded for the study. Nearly 32% (n = 4962) of these edits were on articles for persons or people (see Table 1 for complete coding results). From within this sub-sample of edits, a majority of the people (68.67%) represented are associated with North America and Europe (Figure A). If we break these statistics down further, nearly half of WP:CSB’s edits concerning people were associated with the United States (36.11%) and England (10.16%), with India (3.65%) and Australia (3.35%) following at a distance. These figures make sense for the English-language Wikipedia; over 95% of the population in the three Westernised countries speak English, and while India is still often regarded as a developing nation, its colonial British roots and the emergence of a market economy with large, technology-driven cities are logical explanations for its representation here (and some estimates make India the largest English-speaking nation by population on the globe today).Table A Coding Results Total Edits 15616 (I) Ideas 2881 18.45% (L) Location 2240 14.34% NA 333 2.13% (T) Thing 5200 33.30% (P) People 4962 31.78% People by Continent Africa 315 6.35% Asia 827 16.67% Australia 175 3.53% Europe 1411 28.44% NA 110 2.22% North America 1996 40.23% South America 128 2.58% The areas of the globe of main concern to WP:CSB proved to be much less represented by the coalition itself. Asia, far and away the most populous continent with more than 60% of the globe’s people (GeoHive), was represented in only 16.67% of edits. Africa (6.35%) and South America (2.58%) were equally underrepresented compared to both their real-world populations (15% and 9% of the globe’s population respectively) and the aforementioned dominance of the advanced Westernised areas. However, while these percentages may seem low, in aggregate they do meet the quota set on the WP:CSB Project Page calling for one out of every twenty edits to be “a subject that is systematically biased against the pages of your natural interests.” By this standard, the coalition is indeed making headway in adding content that strategically counterbalances the natural biases of Wikipedia’s average editor.Figure ASocial network analysis allows us to visualise multifaceted data in order to identify relationships between actors and content (Vego-Redondo; Watts). Similar to Davis’s well-known sociological study of Southern American socialites in the 1930s (Scott), our Wikipedia coalition can be conceptualised as individual actors united by common interests, and a network of relations can be constructed with software such as UCINET. A mapping algorithm that considers both the relationship between all sets of actors and each actor to the overall collective structure produces an image of our network. This initial network is bimodal, as both our Wikipedia editors and their edits (again, coded for country of interest) are displayed as nodes (Figure B). Edge-lines between nodes represents a relationship, and here that relationship is the act of editing a Wikipedia article. We see from our network that the “U.S.” and “England” hold central positions in the network, with a mass of editors crowding around them. A perimeter of nations is then held in place by their ties to editors through the U.S. and England, with a second layer of editors and poorly represented nations (Gabon, Laos, Uzbekistan, etc.) around the boundaries of the network.Figure BWe are reminded from this visualisation both of the centrality of the two Western powers even among WP:CSB editoss, and of the peripheral nature of most other nations in the world. But we also learn which editors in the project are contributing most to underrepresented areas, and which are less “tied” to the Western core. Here we see “Wizzy” and “Warofdreams” among the second layer of editors who act as a bridge between the core and the periphery; these are editors with interests in both the Western and marginalised nations. Located along the outer edge, “Gallador” and “Gerrit” have no direct ties to the U.S. or England, concentrating all of their edits on less represented areas of the globe. Identifying editors at these key positions in the network will help with future research, informing interview questions that will investigate their interests further, but more significantly, probing motives for participation and action within the coalition.Additionally, we can break the network down further to discover editors who appear to have similar interests in underrepresented areas. Figure C strips down the network to only editors and edits dealing with Africa and South America, the least represented continents. From this we can easily find three types of editors again: those who have singular interests in particular nations (the outermost layer of editors), those who have interests in a particular region (the second layer moving inward), and those who have interests in both of these underrepresented regions (the center layer in the figure). This last group of editors may prove to be the most crucial to understand, as they are carrying the full load of WP:CSB’s mission.Figure CThe End of Geography, or the Reclamation?In The Internet Galaxy, Manuel Castells writes that “the Internet Age has been hailed as the end of geography,” a bold suggestion, but one that has gained traction over the last 15 years as the excitement for the possibilities offered by information communication technologies has often overshadowed structural barriers to participation like the Digital Divide (207). Castells goes on to amend the “end of geography” thesis by showing how global information flows and regional Internet access rates, while creating a new “map” of the world in many ways, is still closely tied to power structures in the analog world. The Internet Age: “redefines distance but does not cancel geography” (207). The work of WikiProject: Countering Systemic Bias emphasises the importance of place and representation in the information environment that continues to be constructed in the online world. This study looked at only a small portion of this coalition’s efforts (~16,000 edits)—a snapshot of their labor frozen in time—which itself is only a minute portion of the information being dispatched through Wikipedia on a daily basis (~125,000 edits). Further analysis of WP:CSB’s work over time, as well as qualitative research into the identities, interests and motivations of this collective, is needed to understand more fully how information bias is understood and challenged in the Internet galaxy. The data here indicates this is a fight worth fighting for at least a growing few.ReferencesAlexa. “Top Sites.” Alexa.com, n.d. 10 Mar. 2010 ‹http://www.alexa.com/topsites>. Ayers, Phoebe, Charles Matthews, and Ben Yates. How Wikipedia Works: And How You Can Be a Part of It. 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Le désordre des finances publiques (déficit budgétaire, endettement, enrichissement illicite, détournement de fonds publics, sous-développement…) rencontré par l’État gabonais légitime la mise en place d’une nouvelle gouvernance financière. Dans un contexte budgétaire difficile et dans l’objectif de l’assainissement de l’état des finances publiques, l’État gabonais s’est penché dans la réorganisation des systèmes financier et institutionnel, en adoptant la loi organique n°020/2014 du 21 mai 2015 relative aux lois de finances et à l’exécution du budget (LOLFEB). La LOLFEB est un véritable instrument de révolution du droit financier public qui inscrit la réforme budgétaire dans une stratégie globale de la modernisation des finances publiques au Gabon. Cette loi organique qui rompt avec le système dit de « budget de moyens », mettant en évidence, la régularité juridique dans la gestion des finances publiques, place la performance au centre de l’action de l’État.Émanant de la jonction des volontés internationale, communautaire et nationale, aujourd’hui, la LOLFEB constitue un nouvel outil juridique qui apporte des innovations répondant aux exigences de la nouvelle gestion publique. La thèse examine les transformations opérées par cet instrument, en matière d’élaboration, d’exécution, de suivi et de contrôle du budget ainsi que de la comptabilité. Cette réforme reste un défi majeur, pour les gestionnaires et les pouvoirs politiques, dont les enjeux et impacts pourront être mesurés sur les plans politique, économique et social
The misrule of public finance (budget deficit, indebtedness, illicit enrichment, embezzlement of public funds, underdevelopment...) met by the Gabonese State legitimizes the establishment of a new financial governance. In a difficult budgetary context and with the aim of improving the state of public finance, the Gabonese Government has been looking into the reorganization of the financial and institutional systems, by adopting organic law n° 020/2014 of May 21, 2015 concerning finance law and budget execution (LOLFEB). The LOLFEB is a real revolution instrument in public financial law that places budget reform in an overall strategy for the modernization of public finance in Gabon. This organic law, which breaks up with the "budget of means" called system, high lights legal regularity in the management of public finance and put performance at the center of the State's action. From the junction of international, community and national wills, today the LOLFEB is a new legal instrument bringing novelty which meets there quirements of the new public administration. The thesis examines the transformation made by this instrument in terms of budget preparation, execution, monitoring and control as well as accounting. This reform remains a major challenge for administrators and political authorities, the issues and impacts of which can be measured politically, economically and socially

Contrairement à ce que prêchent les thèses libérales sur les effets distorsifs et négatifs de la fiscalité, la grande contradiction entre fiscalité et performance n'est pas une caractéristique immuable des économies contemporaines. L’endettement permanent du Gabon ne résulte pas de la non soutenabilité de la politique fiscale et budgétaire, mais plutôt d'une mauvaise gestion de la dette publique associée à une demande sociale élevée. L’étude démontre que les pouvoirs publics peuvent maximiser la performance fiscale s'ils mettent en place des mécanismes efficaces et appropries. La récente réforme fiscale-douanière de l'UDEAC constitue dans ce contexte, un bon exemple par le changement de cap introduit dans la fiscalité gabonaise. Cependant, si cette réforme demeure une condition nécessaire, elle n'est pas suffisante et ne constitue pas un programme de politique économique. L’élargissement de la base imposable de la TVA et la fiscalisation graduelle du secteur informel s'imposent. L’étude met en évidence les couts sociaux et politiques qui peuvent en résulter et l'importance de leur minimisation par la redistribution, les dépenses publiques, le développement des filets de protection sociale et le développement des extrémales positives. Mais si indispensable soit elle, la redistribution ne peut se faire que dans le cadre d'une économie efficace. Ainsi, face aux contraintes endogènes et aux nouvelles contraintes exogènes nées de la mondialisation, comment peut-on relancer durablement la croissance de l'économie gabonaise, caractérisée par une récession sans précèdent ?

Cette thèse est l'aboutissement d'un travail de recherche sur le comportement financier des entreprises gabonaises. À partir d'une présentation des principaux cadres théoriques de la structure financière des entreprises, il apparaît que ceux-ci sont contingents. Deux raisons essentielles, la diversité des modèles théoriques lesquels forment un "puzzle" et les résultats de certaines études empiriques. De ce fait, nous référant à l'environnement des entreprises gabonaises, nous nous sommes interrogés sur les cadres théoriques les plus significatifs du choix de financement des entreprises, par l'étude de six branches d'activité du secteur industriel gabonais, jugées représentatives. Enfin, nous dressons l'impact de nos résultats sur la politique financière des entreprises
The thesis is the result of research focusing on the financial behavior of firms in Gabon. Starting from a presentation of the principal theoretical frameworks for corporate financial structure, it becomes clear that these latter are contigent. Two essential reasons, the diversity of the theorical models which forms a puzzie, and the results of certain empirical studies. Consequently, in referring to Gabon's firms, we examine the most significant theoretical framework for the choice of corporate financing, through the study of six sectors analyses of Gabon's industry judged to be representative. The final part of the thesis deals with the impact of this research on corporate financial policy

"Le présent travail entend apporter un enrichissement aux notions de risque et de confiance de manière générale, celle du risque bancaire en particulier. En ce que le débat sur la problématique du financement bancaire des petites et moyennes entreprises est, au Gabon, comme dans la plupart des sociétés africaines, souvent obscurci par une propension, sans doute excusable, qui consiste à réduire l'explication des difficultés des entreprises aux seules considérations financières. Or, la confrontation de cette analyse avec les réalités structurantes des économies sous-développées montre les contraintes de diverses natures que l'environnement général fait peser sur les banques et l'ensemble des opérateurs économiques. S'y ajoutent les contraintes relatives aux spécificités irréductibles des entreprises concernées. Du point de vue risque, ces contraintes cumulées sont génératrices de risques exceptionnels. D'où non seulement le caractère épiphénoménal de la contrainte financière mais aussi une difficulté accrue d'appréciation des risques de crédit. Il s'en suit un phénomène de rationnement du crédit qui sert plus comme un moyen imparfait de limitation du risque bancaire que comme un mécanisme de sélection efficace. Aussi, sans prétendre donner des solutions toutes faites à des problèmes d'une redoutable complexité, il nous a été permis – au bénéfice du jeune droit économique de ces pays – de tirer quelques implications relatives aux politiques permettant aux opérateurs économiques de faire l'économie du risque et, par conséquent, de prendre des décisions de financement pertinentes. La restauration de la confiance, qui fonde le crédit, et plus généralement la vie des affaires, est un volet important de ces réformes " structurantes ". Car sans la confiance, ni le droit ni l'économie ne parviennent à leurs fins. "
Generally speaking, the purpose of this project is to clarify the notions of risk and trust, particularly with regards to banking, insofar as questions relating to bank financing for SMEs in Gabon, as in the majority of African society, are often clouded by an understandably excusable inclination to write off the enterprises' difficulties as a simple result of financial difficulties. Pitting such an analysis against the basic realities of underdeveloped economies demonstrates the variety of constraints that the overall environment exerts on banks and the entirety of economic operators. The limitations related to the irreducible particularities of the businesses must be taken into consideration. Where risk is concerned, the cumulative constraints engender exceptional risks, explaining not only the epiphenomenal nature of the financial constraint, but also an accrued difficulty of credit risk evaluation. An ensuing credit rationing phenomenon becomes more an imperfect means of limiting bank risk rather than an efficient selection mechanism. Further, without pretending to provide blanket solutions for formidably complex problems, we were able — for the benefit of the country's fledgling economic law — to glean a few implications relative to policies that would diminish the risk aversion of certain economic operators and thus make the pertinent decisions. Restoring the trust that is the cornerstone of both credit and business in general is an integral part of such orthopraxy. For neither law nor economics can attain their goals without trust

En 2015, le Gabon a adopté son premier budget en mode LOLFEB. Cette nouvelle loi organique relative aux lois de finances et à l’exécution du budget a été présentée comme la nouvelle « Constitution financière » du Gabon. Résultant d’un long processus, la loi organique entendait répondre à deux finalités principales : améliorer l’efficacité de la dépense publique à travers la modernisation de la gestion publique d’une part, et d’autre part, favoriser la transparence en renforçant le rôle du Parlement en matière budgétaire. La réforme budgétaire, issue de la loi organique allait bien au-delà d’une simple modernisation des règles et procédures. Elle devait modifier en profondeur le droit financier gabonais en ce sens qu’elle introduisait un nouveau système de budgétisation par programmes orienté par les résultats et elle entendait moderniser les modes classiques de gestion publique. Elle subordonnait l’action de l’État à la réalisation d’objectifs clairs, assortis d’indicateurs chiffrés, précis et mesurables permettant au Parlement de suivre la performance de l’action publique. Le nouveau cadre de la gestion budgétaire au Gabon devait mettre l’accent sur l’atteinte des résultats plutôt que sur la conformité aux règles et aux procédures. Pour autant, sa mise en œuvre a relevé un certain nombre de problématiques qui a récemment conduit à la décision du Président de la République, à la suite du Conseil des Ministres en date du 17 Mai 2018, de mettre à plat le nouveau système de budgétisation, seulement trois ans après son entrée en vigueur
In 2015, Gabon has adopted the first LOLFEB budget. This new organic law regarding the financials laws and the budget execution has been submitted as Gabon's new “Constitution financière”.Resulting from a long process, the organic law deal with two topics: on one hand, improve public expenditure by updating public management and on another hand, support the transparency by strengthening parliament's role in budgetary matters. The budgetary reform from the organic law is not a simple process and rules modernization. This reform modifies deeply the Gabonese financial right because this inasmuch as this law introduces a new result-oriented program budgeting system and modernized the classics mode of public management. This law helps parliament to follow up public action by defining clear objectives, quantified indicators, accurate and measurables. The new budgetary management frame is focused on results reaching instead of compliant rules and processes. However, many issues have been identified during its implementation, following that, the republic president during the ministery council decided on May 17th 2018 to set up the budgeting system three years after its implementation

Les Cours des comptes Française et Gabonaise créées respectivement en 1807 et 1962 sont des institutions externes de contrôle des finances publiques. Elles sont investies d’une mission spécifique : contrôler la gestion de deniers publics. Mais de quel « contrôle » s’agit-il ? Ce contrôle est-il le même selon que l’on se situe en France et au Gabon ? Ces interrogations qui constituent le fondement même de notre analyse témoignent aussi de la logique comparative de notre thèse. L’intérêt de cette étude est d’autant plus pertinent que ce sont deux institutions qui se caractérisent par des trajectoires historiques et des contextes d’évolution sociale, politique et administrative différents : la Constitution française de la Vème République admet le principe de la séparation des pouvoirs, or ce principe n’a été inséré dans la Constitution Gabonaise qu’en 1991 à la faveur de l’avènement du multipartisme. Notre démarche consiste d’abord à situer le domaine d’action des Cours des comptes Gabonaise et Française par rapport aux institutions exécutive et législative puis à identifier leurs différences afin de marquer leurs originalités. La réflexion que nous menons a un objet clairement défini : déterminer les critères et les mécanismes sur lesquels peut ou doit se fonder la Cour des comptes du Gabon pour améliorer son rendement
French and Gabonese revenue courts are external institutions of control for public finances respectively created in 1807 and 1962. Their specific mission concerns the checking of public funds. What kind of "control" does it mean? Is this control the same in France and in Gabon? These issues constitute the very basis of our analysis and illustrate the comparative logic of our argument. Our study is all the more relevant that we are dealing with two institutions characterized by different historical social, political and administrative patterns. For instance the French Constitution of the fifth Republic acknowledges the principle of separation of powers whereas the latter was inserted into the Gabonese Constitution only in 1991 thanks to the multiparty system. We begin by situating the sphere of activity of the French and Gabonese revenue courts regarding their executive and legislative institutions. We then identify the features that make their originality. Our thesis has a clearly defined purpose: to determine the criteria and mechanisms that can or should be used by the revenue court of Gabon to improve its performance

Les valeurs mobilières connaissent un développement et une diversification importante aussi bien en France, en Europe que dans le reste du monde. Ce développement répond à un besoin sans cesse accru de capitaux émanant des sociétés anonymes es. Malheureusement, pour des raisons diverses, le Gabon, et d'une manière générale, l’Afrique francophone, sont restes à l’écart de cette évolution. Ce sujet, qui s'inscrit dans un optique comparative, a un double objet : - pour le droit français, faire une étude synthétique des valeurs mobilières composées - pour le droit gabonais, envisager l'intérêt de transposer les règles françaises
Transferable securities are undergoing an important development and diversification in France, Europe as well as in other parts of the world. This development responds to the ceaselessly increasing needs of capitals which come from limited companies. Unfortunately, for various reasons, Gabon, and francophone African countries in general, kept out of this evolution. This comparative-based topic has a double objective: - for the French law, to make a synthetic study of composed transferable securities. - For the Gabonese law, to envisage the interest of transposing the French regulations

L'accumulation de la dette extérieure des pays membres de l'UDEAC (Cameroun, Congo Gabon) constituant un fardeau important, il est temps aujourd'hui d'en apprécier à la fois la gravité et la légitimité. L'analyse des faits et des modèles existants ainsi que leurs fondements théoriques sous-jacents nous ont apporté des éclairages nouveaux. Il en ressort que le recours successif à l'emprunt extérieur est une manifestation de la crise de développement dont la dette extérieure n'est qu'une composante. Revélatrice de désequilibres structurels profonds, celle-ci est provoquée par des causes internes et externes. Aussi les politiques d'ajustement structurel mises en œuvre ici et là, n'ont pas été en mesure de réduire les déséquilibres, tout en permettant de renouer avec la croissance. La préoccupation de concilier les flux de capitaux extérieurs avec les impératifs du développement économique nous a conduit à proposer un modèle économétrique d'endettement soutenable spécifique aux trois pays étudiés, tout en insistant sur la nécessité de trouver les solutions et les formules novatrices en matière de gestion et d'aménagement de leur dette. D'après le résultat et les conclusions du modèle, l'endettement est supportable si le taux de croissance de la dette extérieure n'est pas supérieur, pendant une longue période, au taux de croissance du PIB. La vérification de cette condition montre que les trois pays ont dépassé leur seuil d'endettement durant la période 1970-1990
The accumulation of the external member country debt of udeac (cameroun , congo, gabon) constituting an important burden, its today to appreciate some both the gravity and the legitimaty. The analysis of the made and existent models as well as their foundations underlying theoreticals us new lightings. It in spring that the successive recourse to the external loan is a manifstation of the crisis of development whose external debt is only a component. Revealing of deep structural imbalances theb former is provoked by external and internal causes. Also structural adjustement policy implementation here and there, have not been in measure to reduce imbalances, while allowing to renew with the growth. The preocupation to concilliate capital exterior flows with economic development imperatives has behaved us to propose a model econometric of specific bearable debt to the three studied countries, while insisting on the necessity to find solutions and novatrices formula management and ajustment of the debt. According to the result and conclusions of the model, the debt is bearable if the growth rate of the external debt is not superior, during a long period, to the growth rate of the gdp. The verification of this condition shows that the three coutries have exceeded their treshold of debt during the period 1970-1990

Les difficultés rencontrées lors des dernières négociations du GATT, le succès de la CEE, la conversion des USA en faveur du régionalisme et la marginalisation des PVD dans le commerce international ont fait comprendre aux pays africains que l'intégration régionale était devenue une nécessité incontournable. La réflexion doit porter désormais, non plus sur la question du choix entre régionalisme et multilatéralisme mais sur les modalités d'organisation efficaces des espaces régionaux afin que ceux-ci soient couronnés de succès. Une telle réflexion ne peut être possible que si l'on dispose d'une évaluation quantitative des coûts et des gains du régionalisme permettant la définition et la mise en place des mécanismes de compensation. L'objectif de la thèse de faire cette évaluation en utilisant les modèles d'équilibre général calculable comme cadre d'analyse. Le cas du Gabon dans l'UDEAC est pris pour illustrer les principaux résultats. Mais avant d'arriver à cette évaluation quantitative, un survol de la littérature est fait afin de mettre en évidence les principaux résultats théoriques obtenus depuis Viner (1950). Le modèle Azingo. Egc que nous avons construit pour l'économie gabonaise montre que l'intégration régionale en Afrique centrale (matérialisé par la reforme fiscalo-douanière de l'UDEAC) va provoquer une baisse de la production en volume des secteurs de l'industrie et des BTP de l'ordre de 7 à 6%. Les importations agricoles en provenance des autres pays de l'UDEAC augmentent de 106% alors que celles en provenance des pays tiers n'augmentent que de 47%. Le bien-être des ménages s'améliore de 4 à 7% alors que la perte des recettes publiques reste limitée à 70 milliards de FCFA soit une baisse de 15%. Il apparaît clairement que le Gabon est un débouché régional potentiel pour les produits agricoles et industriels. Il serait par contre exportateur du bois, des mines et des services.