This article analyses the determinants of domestic savings in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), except for Guinea-Bissau. Members of the WAEMU are Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. WAEMU member countries are working toward greater regional integration with unified external tariffs. The economic dynamism sought by each country could be beneficial to the mobilization of savings. Research into the determinants of savings is therefore of crucial importance for countries with a financing gap. The study covers the period from 1982 to 2017. The data used for this study come mainly from the World Bank (WDI). Using Dynamic Least Squares (DOLS), the study finds that domestic saving behavior is positively influenced by gross domestic product per capita, investment, life expectancy at birth, and the lending rate. On the other hand, primary school enrolment, trade openness, and inflation negatively affect domestic savings.

This paper provides an empirical assessment of the relationship between banking origins and the supply of credit in Ivory Coast. The analysis focuses on 14 banks composed of local banks, African banks and foreign banks outside Africa. The study covers the period from 2000 to 2016. Using the panel data approach, we show that local banks positively influence the supply of credit unlike foreign and African banks. Foreign banks, on the other hand, have a negative influence on the supply of credit in Ivory Coast. In addition, the results highlight the positive impact of growth and market share on the supply of credit to the private sector. On the other hand, the size of banks and the inflation rate are unfavourable to the supply of credit in Ivory Coast. The study suggests that local banks should be strengthened so that they can provide more financing to the Ivorian economy.

This paper provides an empirical assessment of the relationship between the structure of the banking market and the cost of credit in the WAEMU. The analysis focuses on WAEMU countries except for Guinea-Bissau due to the lack of sufficiently long series. The study covers the period from 1996 to 2017. Using the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) method, we show that the banking market concentration ratio has a double effect on the cost of credit. First, the concentration ratio increases the cost of credit, and second, it decreases the cost of credit after reaching a threshold of 70 percent. Moreover, the results highlight the positive impact of the money market interest rate on the cost of credit. On the other hand, the inflation rate unexpectedly lowers the cost of credit in the WAEMU.

This study empirically analyses the influence of urbanization and the participation of men and women in the labour force on economic growth in the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Using data from the World Bank (2017) on the member States between 1990 and 2016, we show from Pesaran’s PMG estimator, Shin and Smith (1999) that in the short term, youth and women are very useful for economic growth. In the long term, urbanization, industrial added value and the elderly make a positive contribution to economic growth. The study urges governments to create better living conditions by ensuring adequate income levels and care, i.e., public policies should aim to increase employment, establish or improve social protection, social integration, health and the fight against discrimination.

This article examines the optimality problem in existing "planted-shared" agricultural contracts. We define the optimality properties of a long-term contract when there is no agricultural credit market. We use a dynamic principal-agent model with bilateral engagement. This optimal long-term contract highlights two characteristics: first, the agent's remuneration depends on his productive performance; second, the martingale property of the production sharing index highlights his intertemporal smoothing. Moreover, we show that such intertemporal smoothing of the sharing index is a necessary and sufficient condition for the optimality of the long-term agricultural contract. Finally, among the existing contracts, the sharing rules such as the half sharing rate and the third part sharing rate are those that are close to optimal long-term agricultural contracts. Public authorities could promote this type of rules to meet the demand for securing "planted-share" contracts.