This article analyzes the relationship between corruption and economic growth in the countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (EMCCA). To our knowledge, there are no works dealing with the direct relations between the two variables in such a framework. For this purpose, we use panel data econometrics to show that over the period 2005 to 2015, corruption has favored economic growth in the CEMAC member countries by "grazing" the administrative burdens that impede access basic public services (water, electricity, public hospitals and public schools), the creation and development of private enterprises.

This article analyzes the relation between trade openness and democracy in Gabon. Unlike traditional approaches based on the estimation of linear gravity models, we first estimate a nonlinear model characterizing the relation between democracy and trade openness. We then determine an optimal threshold beyond which democracy has a positive effect on trade openness in Gabon.

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This article is a contribution to the growing literature on the economics of religion. Indeed, to our knowledge, there is no study aimed at explaining the behavior of a revival church from a theoretical model. More precisely, we consider a household which, to maximize its usefulness, claims to be inhabited by the Holy Spirit, becomes a pastor and transforms its habitat into a church. He allocates his time in such a way as to attract and maintain faithful who, born again, offer their work in religious activity and/or make financial contributions. We show that the behavior of revival or awakened churches (Evangelical, Pentecostal, neo-Pentecostal, charismatic or prophetic) is fundamentally determined by the economic context: the level of employability, on the one hand, and the gap between the salary outside the church habitat and the internal salary fixed by the household-pastor to remunerate religious activity, on the other hand. In addition, we argue that in Africa, Revival Churches officiate in a context of unemployment and employ the maximum number of faithful in church activities and improvement. In return, they receive a remuneration lower than that of the labor market (case 4).

This article analyzes the political-fiscal cycle in Gabon. In Africa, it seems that the analysis of the politico-fiscal cycle has not attracted much interest. This is particularly the case in Gabon, a small country of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (EMCCA). Unlike approaches based on the estimation of a single model linking the electoral cycle and a dimension of the state budget, we estimate four models each incorporating a different dimension of the state budget, namely: capital expenditures, total expenditures and the budget deficit. The estimation of a VAR Model (2) and three Error Correction Vector Models (ECVM) confirms the existence of an "opportunistic" politico-budgetary cycle in Gabon.