Contenu du sommaire : Les chemins de l'intégration régionale

Les chemins de l'intégration régionale

• Les économies en développement au regard des théories de la régionalisation. - Philippe Hugon
  Developing economies in the light of theories of regionalisation. A regionalism de jure and a de facto régionalisation may currently be observed in developing countries as South-to-South relations and free trade agreements acquire greater importance. This article takes to task the different theories of regional integration, as the regional space becomes one of the factors of global economic regulation. New debates or ideas centred on geographic dimensions, on the questions of convergence and divergence as well as political and institutional questions, are challenging traditional conceptions of integration.
• Crise économique et régionalisation en Asie orientale. - Sophie Boisseau du Rocher
  Economic crisis and régionalisation in Eastern Asia. The Asian economic crisis certainly served as boosting drive on the spur of novel views to the constitution of East-Asian community. But two main trigger- factors seem responsible for reversing the dominant current. Such are the initiatives taken prior to 1997 and the Chinese development, which serves as a powerful regional impetus.
• Les investissements directs étrangers et l'intégration régionale : les exemples de l'ASEAN et du MERCOSUR. - Mamadou Camara
  Direct foreign investments and regional integration : the ASEAN and MERCOSUR examples. On the basis of the asean and the mercorsur examples, this article attempts to demonstrate the contribution of direct foreign investments to differentiated schémas of régionalisation. Following the leads to integrating processes during the 1990s, the author analyses (what he terms here as) the IDE determinants for the 1980-1998 period. The results help to explain how productive foreign capital contributes to conferring a vertical dimension to regional integration in South-East Asia in contrast to Latin America.
• Les trajectoires régionales en Afrique australe dans un contexte de récession mondiale. - Marie-Odile Blanc
  Regional trajectories in Southern Africa in the context of global recession. This text aims at explaining the reactions of southern African economies to global recession and internal crisis. The volatility of primary product rates ; their sectoral effects and the strains on internal stability may compromise the prospects of regional growth. The influence of what the author terms here as the hegemonic South African pole and its relay-economies on the region, is analysed from the asymmetrical configuration of exchanges with southern Africa.
• La crise du régionalisme en Méditerranée. - Jean-Yves Moisseron
  The crisis of Mediterranean regionalism. The overview of the Barcelona accords after six years is still one of vacillation between failure and enlistment. Delays to the signature and application of the association accords seem endless. Contrary to declarations, the reality of MEDA payments is far from the fixed objectives. The cultural aspects are reduced to the bare minimum. The expected effects in regard to direct foreign investments in the Mediterranean are still lacking and the recent worsening of the international political climate are no help at all.
• Nouveau régime commercial et inégalités salariales en Amérique Latine. - Thierry Deffarges
  The new trade regime and wage disparities in Latin America. This article analyses the causalities between external liberalisation and the increase of wage disparities in Latin America during the 1990s. The direct effects of the international insertion of these countries on relative wage variations exist, but the main force results from the indirect effects of external liberalisation. Exposure to international competition happens to favour a qualified workforce, thus inducing an asymmetric wages adjustment that negatively affects unqualified labour. The dynamics of relative wages therefore simultaneously expresses the improvements in productive efficiency and cost-effects.
• Pourquoi faut-il aider les pauvres ? Une étude critique du discours de la Banque mondiale sur la pauvreté. - Bruno Lautier
  Why should the poor be helped ? A critical study of the World Banks' stand on poverty. For about a decade now, the struggle against poverty has been heralded as the central objective of development institutions, especially the World Bank. (That is its « raison d'être » or the essence of its existence). This priority is evermore justified on the basis of moral reasons. This article seeks to expose some inherent contradictions to such moral appeal, the covert objectives thereto and the political effects of such a strategy : the creation of a new type of citizen and a new form of government. The moral appeal as such carries the underpinnings of a political Utopia.
• Syndicalisme et efficience technique : une analyse appliquée aux firmes bangladaises. - Patrick Plane
  Trade unionism and technical efficiency : a practical analysis to Bangladeshi firms. The impact of trade union activity on the economic variables of firms has not been much studied, especially in developing countries. The authors of this paper attempted to apply econometric tests on the technical efficiency of a cross section of Bangladeshi firms by comparing those with and without trade unions. Estimates of a « parametric frontier model » between the two situations suggest a rather positive relationship. The statistically significant influence of trade unions however proves relevant only when considered in relation to firms predominantly owned by foreigners and in the overall context of econometric variables determining firm efficiency.
• Les approches du système national d'innovation : les économies semi-industrialisées. - Mihoub Mezouaghi
  Approaches to national innovation systems and knowledge diffusion : what prospects for semi-industrialised economies ? The insertion of developing countries in the international division of labour is partly determined by the specificity of the institutional arrangements as reflected by the conditions underlying the emergence of their national innovation systems. The specific, cumulative and localised character of learning processes lead to recognise its institutionalised features. On the basis of the institutionalist and evolutionary theories, the methodological approach of this author aims at exposing the obstacles to the learning dynamic in the developing countries. The diversity of the institutional configurations likely to determine the harnessing of knowledge explains the asymmetry of the economic and technological performance between countries.