Paris West University Nanterre La Défense

About: Paris West University Nanterre La Défense is a education organization based out in Paris, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Computer science & Politics. The organization has 895 authors who have published 1430 publications receiving 21712 citations.

How to Boost the Impact of Intra-African Trade on Income in Africa?

Abstract: Regional trade integration is viewed by both international institutions and local political leaders as a key tool for promoting inclusive growth and reducing poverty in Africa. However, several structural weaknesses in African economies undermine trade integration and inhibit its income-enhancing effect. This paper aims to study the conditional effects of intra-African trade openness on the standard of living in Africa by highlighting the influence of these structural weaknesses. Our results clearly show that the impact of intra-regional trade on income depends on the diversification of African economies, their financial development and the quality of their transport and telecommunications infrastructures. Specifically, we find that a substantial improvement in these fundamentals would make intra-African trade significantly income-enhancing.

Δ-distance: A family of dissimilarity metrics between images represented by multi-level feature vectors

Abstract: This article presents the ?-distance, a family of distances between images recursively decomposed into segments and represented by multi-level feature vectors. Such a structure is a quad, a quin or a nona-tree resulting from a fixed and arbitrary image partition or from an image segmentation process. It handles positional information of image features (e.g. color, texture or shape). ?-distance is the generalized form of dissimilarity measures between multi-level feature vectors. Using different weights on tree nodes and different distances between nodes, distances between trees or visual similarity between images can be computed based on the general definition of ?. In this article, we present three ?-based distance families: two families of distances between tree structures, called $$\mathcal{T}$$ -distance( $$\mathcal{T}$$ for Tree) and $$\mathcal{S}$$ -distance ( $$\mathcal{S}$$ for Segment), and a family of visual distances between images, called ( $$\mathcal{V}$$ for Visual). The $$\mathcal{V}$$ -distance visually compares two images using their tree representation and the other two distances compare the tree structures resulting from image segmentation. Moreover, we show how existing distances between multi-level feature vectors appear to be particular cases of the ?-distance

Une méta-analyse des études d’évaluation monétaire par la méthode des prix hédoniques du coût externe des installations de traitement des déchets

Abstract: Cet article presente les resultats d’une meta-analyse dont le but est d’etudier les facteurs influencant les evaluations monetaires du cout externe des installations de traitement des dechets. Les decharges et les incinerateurs sont sources de nuisances importantes qui expliquent en partie l’opposition croissante face aux projets d’implantation de nouveaux sites. Une recherche bibliographique nous a permis d’identifier 12 etudes utilisant la methode des prix hedoniques (toutes realisees sur le continent nord-americain) pour estimer en termes monetaires le cout externe des installation de traitement des dechets. Cette meta-analyse est realisee sur les 45 estimations fournies par ces etudes primaires. Une meta-analyse est une methode de recherche quantitative utilisant des outils econometriques afin d’analyser les resultats d’un ensemble de travaux anterieurs portant sur une question donnee. Le premier but de cette communication consiste a mettre en avant une estimation monetaire moyenne du cout externe des installations de traitement des dechets. Le second but est d’etudier les facteurs influencant la variabilite des differentes estimations. Nous montrons que la distance, le revenu, les caracteristiques des installations de traitement des dechets, la specification de la forme fonctionnelle de l’equation de prix hedonique et l’information publique expliquent en grande partie cette variabilite des differentes estimations.

Think Global, Invest Responsible: Why the Private Equity Industry Goes Green

Abstract: The growth of socially responsible investment on public financial markets has drawn considerable academic attention over the last decade. Discarding from previous literature, this paper sets up to analyze the Private Equity channel, which is shown to have the potentiality to foster sustainable practices in unlisted companies. The fast integration of the Environmental, Social and Governance issues by mainstream Private Equity investors is unveiled and appears to have benefited from the maturation of socially responsible investment on public financial markets and the impetus of large conventional actors. Hypothesis on the characteristics and drivers of this movement are proposed and tested on a unique database covering the French Private Equity industry in 2011. Empirical findings support that Private Equity responsible investing is characterized by shareholder activism and strategically driven by a need for new value creation sources, increased risk management and differentiation. In particular, results show that independent funds, which need to attract investors, are more likely than captive funds to develop responsible practices. Evolution of the movement and future research paths are proposed.

Une théorie de l'élection de la cigarette comme monnaie

Abstract: Apres mai 1945, avec le refus du Reichsmark dans les echanges, l’Allemagne bascule dans une economie de troc dont la monnaie cigarette est l’episode le plus emblematique. Dans cet article, nous proposons une etude historique et theorique des moyens de paiement de cette economie. Apres avoir indique la proximite entre les hypotheses des modeles de search et ce cas historique, nous construisons un modele donnant les conditions d’utilisation d’un bien comme monnaie marchandise.