The contemporary shadow of the Scramble for Africa

Published on VOXeu.org, by Stelios Michalopoulos and Elias Papaioannou, March 1, 2017.

the Scramble for Africa has contributed to economic, social, and political underdevelopment by spurring ethnic-tainted civil conflict and discrimination and by shaping the ethnic composition, size, shape and landlocked status of the newly independent states. This column, taken from a recent VoxEU eBook, summarises the key findings of studies that use high-resolution geo-referenced data and econometric methods to estimate the long-lasting impact of the various aspects of the Scramble for Africa. Continuer la lecture de « The contemporary shadow of the Scramble for Africa »

Understanding the global role of the US economy

Published on VOXeu, by M. Ayhan Kose, Csilla Lakatos, Franziska Ohnsorge, Marc Stocker, Feb 27, 2017.

A growth surge in the world’s largest economy could provide a significant boost to global activity. In contrast, uncertainty about the direction of US policies could have the opposite effect. This column investigates spillover channels linking the US and the global economy. An acceleration in US growth would have positive effects for the rest of the world if not counterbalanced by increased trade barriers. However, policy uncertainty could hamper global growth, and could have particularly bad effects on investment growth in emerging and developing economies … // Continuer la lecture de « Understanding the global role of the US economy »