Commodities and Downstream Integration Policies: the Challenges of a Complex Strategy

Our senior fellow, Otaviano Canuto, has contributed to Science Direct academic Journal, with a research paper entitled « Does the Brazilian policy for oil revenues distribution foster investment in human capital? », Volume 88, May 2020, 104760. This paper assesses the effect of oil revenues on health and education indicators (measures for human capital) in the Brazilian municipalities using exogenous oil price variations. The Oil Law of 1997, apart from to hugely increase the amoun ...

Despite the global magnitude of the COVID-19 crisis, the response to the pandemic has mainly occurred at national level, with very poor global coordination so far. For Africa, which will provide one in four of the world’s consumers by 2050, coming out of the crisis will cost at least $100 billion. The average ratio of public revenue to GDP in African countries is only 19%, and the debt burden already absorbs 22% of that revenue, giving many African governments limited scope compared ...

The merciless COVID-19 disease threatens economic misery, with people around the world touched by anxiety and unemployment. In this context, never in recent history has so much hope centered on scientists and the studious brilliance of academic institutions. Media headlines tell the story, with newspapers around the world speaking of beacons of hope in the form of potential cures, vaccines, immune therapies, and clinical trials. Without the solutions of science, nations face long-te ...

Alors que commence le déconfinement de l'économie française, la grande inquiétude est de savoir comment éviter une « seconde vague » de l'épidémie. Parmi les nombreuses précautions et mesures à prendre, l’augmentation du nombre de tests et le traçage systématique des contacts sont les plus souvent mis en avant par les épidémiologistes. L'idéal serait de tester fréquemment tous les habitants du pays et ses visiteurs étrangers. Pour cela, il faudrait effectuer bien au-delà de 60 milli ...

The coronavirus epidemic is weakening even further the economies of the Gulf of Guinea, which have already been particularly undermined by an oil sector that has been in crisis for several years. The rapid fall in oil prices will once again put a strain on systems that fail to reinvent and diversify themselves in order to protect themselves from the shortcomings often seen in windfall economies. In addition to the economic impact, it is likely to see the potential security and polit ...