Working papers
Abstract: Existing experimental evidence on the contact hypothesis has mainly used long and unstructured interventions, with implications for the replicability and scalability of existing contact protocols. We here test the effect of a brief contact, using a structured protocol that can be implemented in a wide range of situations at a reasonable cost. We also evaluate the lasting effects one month after the intervention. Contact is only found to be effective at increasing trust toward the specific individuals met, and only in the short-run. Generic Machine Learning techniques enable us to identify characteristics of the most and least affected groups.
Résumé: Dans cet article, nous analysons les facteurs qui contribuent à l’écart urbain-rural d’accès à la santé infantile au Sénégal. Pour cela, nous avons décomposé l’écart de santé entre les milieux urbain et rural (i) à un effet de composition (liée aux différences en termes de caractéristiques individuelles) et (ii) à un effet de structure (à la discrimination selon le milieu de résidence) et nous avons mesuré les écarts dans toute la distribution d'une mesure d'inégalité de santé. Nous avons appliqué la méthode des régressions quantiles inconditionnelles basées sur la fonction d'influence recentrée (RIF) sur des données du Demographic Health Survey. Nos résultats montrent que l'écart due à l’effet de composition est en grande partie expliqué par les différences de richesse et d’éducation du chef de ménage. Cependant, la richesse, l’accès à l’eau potable et la structure des ménages sont les facteurs qui expliquent l'avantage structurel urbain ou au désavantage structurel rural. Ces résultats nous ont permis de suggérer des recommandations pour réduire ces disparités ou inégalités afin de booster la santé infantile du Sénégal.
3 - Corruption, Political Instability and Mortality in Africa: A Panel-Var Approach (with A. B. Gueye and E.A.A. Ndiaye Submitted)
Abstract: This paper attempts an empirical examination of the interaction between corruption, political instability and the mortality rate, as well as their transmission mechanisms in Sub-Saharan Africa. We use panel VAR techniques to test the causality and the cointegration between these three variables across a sample of 52 African countries covering the period from 1960 to 2016. Our results provide evidence of a unidirectional relationship going from corruption to political instability and from political instability to the mortality rate. We also find that an increase in corruption can create a climate of political instability which leads to an increase in the mortality rate. We subsequently suggest some policy implications.
4 - Does membership in religious brotherhood affect tax morale: evidence from Senegal (With A. Sow) (Submitted)
Abstract: Many social scientists consider religiosity and religious identity as a fundamental factor facilitating tax compliance and thus tax morale. However, previous studies have so far mostly focused on western countries and few of them have examined the relationship between religion affiliation and tax morale in African countries. In this paper we address this issue by testing the causal effect of membership in two main Senegalese Islamic religion brotherhoods (Muridya and Tidjanyya) in tax morale. Using a 2SLS instrumental Variable strategy, the results show that tax morale is positively affected by membership in Mouridya brotherhood and negatively affected by membership in Tidjanyya. In contrast of Muslim member belonging in brotherhoods, the other Muslims present lower level of tax morale. The causal effects we identify raise the question of the channels by which membership affect the degree of tax morale.
Résumé: Past decades have witnessed an increased interest by economists in socio-economic causes of inequality in health. However, understanding these health inequalities fundamentally rests on the assumption that they are inherently wrong. In this paper, we test this assumption in France by investigating the link between individual health and a measure of social inequality of health, the concentration index. Using survey data, we look at overall effects, as well as the interactions with income to see if the correlation is income- dependent. Our results show that, overall, social health inequalities and individual health are not correlated. However, when we go beyond the simple correlation and test for heterogeneity, we find that the link is negative for low-income individuals and becomes positive for better-off individuals. Our results provide evidence that policy interventions which aim at reducing the link between socioeconomic conditions and health should be encouraged.