Ajustements nationaux de mécanismes prix face aux fluctuations du prix mondial: les leçons du coton en Afrique Zone Franc
The French colonial power committed itself in promoting cotton, well before its colonization was achieved. Promotion eventually succeeded only from 1952 onward, thanks to the set up of a pricing mechanism which integrated the needed adaptation to world price fluctuations. Since 1985, this mechanism was adjusted several times, along the collapses of the world price which came out more frequently with great magnitude. The adjustments did not lead to the expected results, although production kept on increasing, because the cotton sectors were close to bankruptcy several times. In most African francophone countries, the very conflicting relationship between stakeholders resulted directly or indirectly from the mechanism adjustments. This article analyses the errors and difficulties in adjusting pricing mechanism under the pressure, still very vivid, of world price fluctuations.
L'intensification agricole vue comme un bien public mondial : un concept pour la relance du développement des zones cotonnières en Afrique
Crop intensification seen as a Global Public Good: a concept to regenerate development in African cotton zones. The concept of Global Public Goods (GPG) has become widespread in the last 10 years or so. However, the situation with regard to their production has hardly evolved at all. This is not surprising inasmuch as most of the GPGs that are often mentioned are actually objectives that it takes time to achieve. In the meantime, little attention is paid to Intermediate Global Public Goods (IGPG), which correspond to the means and conditions necessary to achieve the GPG objectives. The purpose of this paper is to show that agricultural intensification has the characteristics of an IGPG. The case of cotton intensification in Mali is used as a reference. This intensification fits with the broad definition of public goods. It has led to numerous positive externalities, with the help of socio-economic mechanisms, so that the beneficiaries only pay some of the costs. The assimilation of agricultural intensification as an IGPG should encourage a revision of the modes for funding it and, particularly, a move away from a situation where the farmers, who are the poorest of the poor in cotton-producing Africa, bear the costs alone. The identification of negative externalities in the case studied has helped shed light on the limitations of the GPG theory.
CP3's Standardized Approach for Credit Risk and Current Capital Requirements
This paper reports estimated risk-weighted assets at 27 New York banks after applying the provisions of the Standardized Approach, both singly and in combination. The provisions that lead to estimated decreases in risk-weighted assets had greater impact than provisions that lead to estimated increases. This finding implies that using Standardized Approach elements to make capital requirements more risk-sensitive will lead to lower levels of required capital, unless regulators also impose a capital charge for operational risk. The effect of the different provisions varied across the 27 institutions, but the results, on average, are consistent with those reported in the third Quantitative Impact Study.