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This article studies the support for short local food circuits (SFSC) in rural development policy. We question the scope of the SFSC actions created by and for the territories through the local action groups (LAGs) of the LEADER program. Our analytical framework is based on political science, more particularly the functioning of public action. The lexicometric analysis adopted is original and makes it possible to get out of the usual approaches, based solely on a qualitative examination and according to the statements of the actors. The analysis of SFSC support actions reveals similarities and differences in the way two French sub-regions support them. The Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon LAGs include support for SFSCs in economic reterritorialization actions. However, socio-economic actions take different focal points. The Languedoc-Roussillon LAGs are more oriented towards social cohesion and those of Midi-Pyrénées towards employment. Languedoc-Roussillon has the particularity of supporting the SFSCs within the framework of actions to promote natural, cultural and tourist heritage, as well as ecological and energy transition. Our results show the difficulty of getting away from traditional methods of intervention in favor of agriculture to better integrate food aspects. These results lead us to question how the inter-territorial dimension could be strengthened during the next LEADER program. The call for projects launched by the Regions should strengthen acculturation between the LAGs of the sub-regions and establish working habits, as well as the construction of shared governance. The 2023-2027 LEADER programme should be carried out according to common criteria for guiding the actions supported, which calls into question the ability of the future French LAG to take territorial diversity into account. This work should be extended by studying a larger number of territories mobilizing the SFSC in the LEADER programs.

We study the effect of the closing of the Wilson Bridge (in the French city of Tours) to cars between August 13, 2020 and May 24, 2021 on bicycle ridership. We use the daily data from bicycle counters available on the OpenData Tours Métropole Val de Loire website between June 2, 2016 and May 24, 2021. In order to take into account other factors that may impact cycling, we collected data on control variables related to the timing, the climate and the COVID pandemic. We argue that calculations based on average bicycle ridership comparisons tend to significantly overestimate the effect of closing the Wilson Bridge to cars (a 20% increase when comparing one specific month before and after the closing). Indeed, the increasing trend in bicycle use and growing environmental awareness are very strong confounding factors. Using an interrupted time series analysis, we find that this closure would be associated with a 7.23% (CI95%: +0.1%; +14.7%) increase in bicycle traffic. We performed several robustness tests and falsification tests that allowed us to confirm that there was indeed an increase in bicycle traffic. We believe it is important to conduct this type of study, especially when there are multiple exogenous shocks. Finally, we highlight some limitations of our methodology. In particular, because of the data used, it is impossible to clearly separate the effect attributable to a specific development from the totality of bicycle developments made during the COVID pandemic. One should stay particularly cautious with the results of the present study.

Maritime transport is a critical component of international trade and supply chains, facilitating efficient and rapid access to global markets for producers. Port activity, as a key driver of maritime transport performance, enhances connectivity to the maritime network through regular shipping lines and the expansion of containerized traffic. In 2018, global container port traffic reached 793 million TEUs, with an average annual growth rate of 7.4% since 2000. Europe represents the second-largest region globally in terms of container port throughput, accounting for nearly 15% of worldwide traffic. Existing literature on port growth has primarily focused on factors influencing port selection, access to maritime networks characterized by regular shipping lines, and port competition. However, the spatial interdependence of ports has seldom been explored. This study aims to address this research gap by analyzing the determinants of containerized traffic in ports, focusing on the interactions between ports and their spatial dimensions. The Durbin Spatial Model (SDM) is applied to a sample of 123 European ports spanning from 2005 to 2019 to examine the determinants of containerized traffic, while accounting for spatial interdependence among European ports. The main findings reveal a positive spatial interdependence for the European port system, indicating that relationships between European ports tend to be complementary and cooperative rather than competitive. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that port specialization in liquid and solid cargoes negatively impacts containerized traffic. A one standard deviation increase in the hydrocarbon specialization index could result in a 42% decrease in containerized traffic, suggesting that ports prioritize specialization over diversification to exploit economies of scale and strengthen their competitive advantages. These findings have significant policy implications for port authorities, shipping lines, and policymakers, emphasizing the need to account for spatial interactions in port traffic estimates. The study underlines the importance of considering the effects of container flows from neighboring ports when making decisions at the individual port level. As policies and decisions implemented in one port also influence the activity of neighboring ports, greater cooperation and coordination among ports within the same range are encouraged to optimize overall performance and efficiency in the maritime transport sector.

In this article, we study the determinants of educational success among young people in New Caledonia, a small island economy in the South Pacific that is strongly associated with disparities. In fact, the public authorities, and in this case the educational institutions are setting up important measures to reduce inequalities, in a context of decolonization and autonomy of this French overseas territory. Thus, we intend to understand how the compositional effects of educational contexts may or may not contribute to academic performance inequalities. More specifically, we explore the extent to which class and school configurations can influence individual academic achievement. The use of a multilevel method allows us to take into account the overlapping structure of the different school environments, which are the classes and colleges. We use an exhaustive administrative database of ninth grade students to study individual characteristics and the effects of school contexts on success in the Diplôme National du Brevet. This first level of diploma delivered by the French school system, allows a level of analysis that considers the whole school population, since at this age, school is still compulsory. On the other hand, studying the weight of structural factors on individual success, from the earliest age, provides information on the needs necessary to establish a more equitable educational system. In addition to the individual socio-demographic characteristics of students, results of multilevel models show that class effects are more important than school effects. Our results show that a student's probability of graduating increases when he or she shares a class with other students who have high academic performance. On the other hand, the characteristics of the school have little or no significant effect.

In Africa, the adoption of clean cooking fuels is highly pronounced in large cities compared to small cities. In this study, we analyze the differences in households' adoption of liquefied petroleum gas according to urban size in Cameroon. Two urban levels are considered in the study: the metropolitan cities of Douala and Yaoundé and the small-sized cities made up of the other cities of the country. We used data from the fifth Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey conducted in 2014 for empirical analysis. The results from the binary logit estimates show that the adoption of LPG increases with education, wealth, possession of modern stoves and access to information through television and internet. Conversely, it decreases with household size and dwelling ownership. The approach of Fairlie (2006) was used to evaluate the differences in LPG adoption between households from the metropolitan cities and those from the small cities. The results show that the mentioned above factors explain 66% of the differences in LPG adoption between the two groups. From our results, we recommend to strengthen households' access to modern stoves and enhancing education and information on the environmental and health benefits of clean fuels.