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Domination française des marchés en Afrique francophone: Le post-colonialisme à son meilleur ?

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  • Kohnert, Dirk

Abstract

Francophone Africa has been dominated to date by the political, economic and cultural repercussions of France’s colonial rule. A major instrument to assert France's interests was the upkeep of a common monetary policy and currency, the CFA Franc. Although this has been increasingly resented by African politicians and economists, who wanted to replace it by a West African currency (the ‘Eco’) the CFA still prevails, due to the social network of French and African political leaders, the ‘messieurs Afrique’ who benefit from the system. Controversial international discussion concentrates on questions of sovereignty and formal political and economic questions. However, the rules of the informal sector proved to be at least as crucial in structuring the CFA-zone as the institutions and policies of the formal economic sector, including its monetary institutions. For decades, for example, prices of French imports were overpriced, due to protection by tied aid and other political and cultural non-tariff barriers to trade. The cost of this rent-seeking was carried not only by the French Treasury, who guarantees the peg, but by the French and EU taxpayers, who financed budgetary bail-outs and development aid, and last, but not least, by the poorer African member countries and social strata. Although this applies strictly speaking only to the CFA zone, there are strong indicators that things haven't changed much since then for Francophone Africa in general. The repercussions of rent-seeking in Francophone Africat impact up to date negatively on economic performance. For example, growth levels have been significantly lower since two decades compared with Anglophone competitors.

Suggested Citation

  • Kohnert, Dirk, 2022. "Domination française des marchés en Afrique francophone: Le post-colonialisme à son meilleur ?," EconStor Preprints 301011, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:esprep:301011
    DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6167992
    Note: French version of: Kohnert, Dirk (2022): French domination of markets in Francophone Africa: Post-colonialism at its finest?
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kohnert, Dirk, 2018. "Britain and Africa: heading for the Brexit rocks," MPRA Paper 88570, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 21 Aug 2018.
    2. Kohnert, Dirk, 2021. "The EU-Africa summit 2021 : Quo vadis, in the light of Brexit and Corona," AfricArxiv wqxd6, Center for Open Science.
    3. Kohnert, Dirk, 2018. "Britain & Africa: heading for the Brexit rocks," EconStor Preprints 181879, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    4. Michel Fok, 2006. "Liberalization and globalization: Trojan Horse for the cotton traders' domination in Francophone Africa," Post-Print halshs-00325019, HAL.
    5. Kohnert, Dirk, 1993. "'Wir sind alle abgewertet!' Zur Anpassungskrise von Währung, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft in der CFA-Zone," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 35-45.
    6. Lassou, Philippe J.C. & Hopper, Trevor & Tsamenyi, Mathew & Murinde, Victor, 2019. "Varieties of neo-colonialism: Government accounting reforms in Anglophone and Francophone Africa – Benin and Ghana compared," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    7. Kohnert, Dirk, 2005. "Die UEMOA und die CFA-Zone: Eine neue Kooperations-Kultur im frankophonen Afrika?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 115-136.
    8. Franklin Obeng†Odoom, 2018. "Transnational Corporations and Urban Development," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(2), pages 447-510, March.
    9. Lassou, Philippe Jacques Codjo & Hopper, Trevor, 2016. "Government accounting reform in an ex-French African colony: The political economy of neocolonialism," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 39-57.
    10. Mr. P. van den Boogaerde & Mr. Charalambos G Tsangarides, 2005. "Ten Years After the CFA Franc Devaluation: Progress Toward Regional Integration in the WAEMU," IMF Working Papers 2005/145, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Kohnert, Dirk, 2005. "African Monetary Unions - Dominated by the North? On the Relevance of Rational Economic Reasoning Under African Conditions," MPRA Paper 82083, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Joan Ricart-Huguet, 2021. "Why Do Colonial Investments Persist Less in Anglophone than in Francophone Africa?," Journal of Historical Political Economy, now publishers, vol. 1(4), pages 477-498, December.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    France; Afrique francophone; post-colonialisme; marché régulé; capture réglementaire; politique monétaire; franc CFA; zone de libre-échange;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E26 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Informal Economy; Underground Economy
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F54 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - Colonialism; Imperialism; Postcolonialism
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • N17 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Africa; Oceania
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy

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