Flore Gubert

Kinship ties and entrepreneurship in Western Africa

Small entrepreneurs in poor countries achieve relatively high marginal returns to capital but show only low re-investment rates. The literature is rather inconclusive about the possible causes. We explore whether ‘forced redistribution’, i.e. abusive demands by the kin, affects the allocation of capital and labor to the household firm. We use an original data-set covering household firms in seven economic centers in Western Africa. We find some evidence that family and kinship ties within the city rather enhance labor effort and the use of capital. However, the stronger the ties to the village of origin the lower input use which is supporting the ‘forced redistribution’ hypothesis. Given that such redistribution is partly the consequence of a lack of formal insurance mechanisms, these results suggest that the provision of health insurance and other insurance devices may have positive indirect effects on private sector development.

Contingent Loan Repayment in the Philippines

Using data from the Philippines, this article seeks to understand how households in the study area apparently manage to avoid falling into a debt trap in spite of frequent borrowing. Findings suggest that this is achieved via three institutional features. First, most informal debt carries no interest. Second, for all debts, repayment is postponed in case of a borrower’s difficulty; this is the only insurance feature of debt repayment. Third, while debt principal is seldom forgiven or reduced, interest‐bearing debt does not carry additional interest if debt repayment is delayed. This prevents interest charges from accumulating and debt from snowballing.

Les "batailles" de Paris et de New York: Une analyse du comportement électoral transnational des migrants sénégalais en France et aux États-Unis

Dual nationality and citizenship, and external voting rights have been granted by a majority of countries for the last years. This article uses original data collected through a multi-sited survey among Senegalese migrants living in France and in the United States during the first round of Senegals 2012 presidential election to analyse the electoral behaviour of Senegalese migrants and social remittances between destination and origin countries. Senegalese migrants are found to be strongly associated with high level of electoral par- ticipation not only in their origin country but also in their host country for those having dual citi- zenship. Our data also reveal a large range of social remittances between destination and origin countries, which translate into voting recommen- dations that exert strong influence when they come from the migrants