Contenu du sommaire : Varia

Brain Drain, Educational Quality and Immigration Policy : Impact on Productive Human Capital
With the 1967 reform, Canada's immigration policy changed from a country-preference system to a points system. The latter provides points according to applicants' education level but abstracts from the quality of their education. This paper considers the points system (h), the country-preference system (p), as well as a system that includes both educational quantity and quality (termed the “q2 points system”). It focuses on their impact on the host country's average productive human capital – the product of educational quality and quantity – or skill level S, on that of the immigrants, and of high (low) education-quality source countries 1 (2). It shows, among others, that i) S is greater under the q2 system than under the points system (Sq > Sh) ; ii) S is greater under the country-preference system than under the points system (Sp > Sh) ; iii) whether S is greater under the q2 or the country-preference system is ambiguous, with Sq > (p if the quality of education in Country 1 relative to Country 2 is higher (lower) than the degree of preference for migrants from Country 1 relative to Country 2 ; iv) an increase in education quality in the high- (low-) quality source country has a positive (ambiguous) impact on S under all three policies, and the impact is larger under the q2 than under the points system ; and v) a switch from a points system to a q2 system results in a human capital gain or net brain gain for Country 1 and a loss or net brain drain for Country 2.

International Financial Integration and Economic Growth in Emerging and Developing Countries : the Financial Development ChannelIn this paper, we test the empirical implications of financial openness on long-term growth through the financial development channel. Our work differs from the existing literature on a number of issues, the most important of them lies in the study of the relationship between financial openness, financial development and growth through the estimation of a simultaneous equations model. Estimates are performed with GMM dynamic panel data techniques for 112 emerging and developing countries from 1975 to 2007. The results confirm the presence of a significant positive relationship between financial development and long term growth. Unlike the results of an extensive empirical literature supporting a significant positive impact of financial openness on financial development, we get a more nuanced conclusion. Such conclusion is robust to the inclusion of the financial crises variable. Indeed, the nature of this impact varies depending on whether we study the implications on the size, on the efficiency or on the activity of financial system. Our estimates suggest however significant adverse effects of financial openness on the financial intermediaries activity and the stock market development in emerging and developing countries. The results for the subgroup of emerging and frontier countries proved more successful and more conclusive. They unambiguously defend a positive and significant link between financial openness and financial development. Finally, the results show that financial development is an indirect transmission channel through which financial openness may impact long-term growth in emerging and developing countries.

Perception of Obstacles to Innovation Activities in Tunisian Firms
In spite of the considerable effort of the work focused on the identification of the conditions and factors favourable to innovation in developing countries, very few contributions concern the analysis of the obstacles impeding or slowing the innovation process and factors affecting their perceptions. However, the innovation behaviour of firms can be affected by their assessment of barriers and difficulties encountered in the innovation process. This work is dedicated to the analysis of the perceived barriers to innovation activities in Tunisian firms. It advocates a systemic approach to innovation policies which take into account established complementarities. We show that the perception of barriers to innovation is less pronounced for foreign firms and more important for exporters who face competitive pressure, leading to a high perception of impediments related to the lack of information technology and the lack of qualified workers. To overcome the barriers to innovation related to excessive economic risks, high costs of innovation or lack of appropriate funding sources, our results suggest an important role of public and foreign capital. The lack of financial resources is also one of the main obstacles.

A Tax Revenue Dataset for Sub-Saharan Africa : 1980-2010This paper presents a unique tax revenue dataset for Sub-Saharan Africa, which main innovation is the level of detail it provides about tax revenue sources for a large number of countries (41) and over a long time period (1980-2010). The paper describes how the dataset was constructed, identifying along the way problem areas in tax revenue statistics in Sub-Saharan Africa and possible improvements. A graphical analysis highlights revenue performance over time and across three dimensions : income levels, the relative importance of tax revenue from extractive industries, and trading groups (free-trade areas and customs unions). The dataset, available at www.ferdi.fr, should be useful to a wide range of users and researchers, including academics, tax policy practitioners and advisers, and revenue and customs administrations.