type="main" xml:id="jage12049-abs-0001" <title type="main">Abstract</title> <p>This paper examines the effects of the institutional environment on West African cotton farmers’ technical efficiency (TE). First, key aspects of the cotton sector institutional environment are discussed, including input and credit access, and...</p>

The mediterranean blind is one of the most efficient and sophisticated technical system to allow natural illumination in building. A simple solution permits good visual conditions with low heat gains and high ventilation. This solution shows how in architecture, simple designs following...

We consider generic protocells models allowing linear and non-linear kinetics for the main involved chemical reactions. We are interested in understanding if and how the protocell division and the metabolism do synchronise to give rise to sustainable evolution of the protocell. Copyright EDP...

Based on fieldwork undertaken during September 2004 in Bamako and in the Pays Dogon, and further financial and statistical data obtained in 2005, presents the cases of two financial institutions, Nyèsigiso and Caisses Villageoises d’Epargne et de Crédit Autogérées des Pays Dogon (CVECAs).

<title>A<sc>bstract</sc> </title> Some key pitfalls in social capital research stem from an uncritical belief in social capital as the solution to collective action problems, and a tendency to regard tight social relations within communities as an unproblematic field. In the effort to engage with these limitations...

The paper proposes a theoretical framework for understanding purposive child fostering in Africa, whereby a non-orphaned child is sent to live temporarily with relatives. In the model, adults decide whether to foster in or out a child in conjunction with other household choices, e.g. own time...

This paper explores the case for believing endogenous reforms to be more developmental than externally-imposed reforms, by drawing on the recent unorthodox experience of cotton sector reform in Burkina Faso. We address questions about reform emergence, feasibility, developmental impact, and...

Applying John R. Commons institutional economic framework, this paper analyzes the evolution of the key institutions in the Malian cotton sector starting with the CFDT contract following the country‘s Independence in 1960; the nationalization of the cotton gin company, CMDT, in 1974; the completion of...