It is commonly believed about sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that the region has a comparative advantage in primary resources as reflected by its high share of primary exports to total exports. In acknowledging the region's comparative advantage, the study tries to put the determinants from the Wood and Mayer (1998, (999) (W-M) Heckscher-Ohlin based model in the context of two relatively diversified countries (South Africa and Mauritius) and two commodity-export-dependent countries of sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria and Cô̌̌te d'Ivoire). The study finds that the skill and land resource measures used in the W -M (1998, 1999) thesis do not explain why Nigeria, having a similar level of skill per worker ratio to South Africa, has not diversified. Further, Mauritius having relatively the highest skill per land ratio specialises in low-skill textiles and clothing, while South Africa specialises in the more human capital-intensive "other manufactures" group. The other measure, a low land per worker ratio that explains Mauritius' relatively higher share of manufacturing exports, also fails to apply to Nigeria. The thesis thus concludes that the W-M land and skill measures could only be rough proxies in determining comparative advantage in manufacturing exports. However, employing the Dutch disease hypothesis recognises the potential of land abundance as a natural resource, namely minerals in South Africa, oil in Nigeria, and cocoa in Cǒ̌te d'Ivoire. The Dutch disease is a dynamic process of structural economic and political development that will permit an understanding of why natural resource abundant countries do not have a comparative advantage in manufacturing, at least in the short to medium term. The study therefore investigates commodity dependence and the Dutch disease effects to examine whether primary resource- based industrialisation offers an escape from underdevelopment. It establishes that South Africa, a mineral resource rich country, diversified based on a broad mineral-energy-complex (MEC) reinforcing the notion that land abundant countries will first invest in capital- intensive primary resource processing. However, the thesis concludes that in Nigeria and Cǒ̌te d'Ivoire where external shocks are more predominant probably because of single commodity export reliance, the manufacturing sector lags behind more due to resource and spending effects that a natural resource boom generates in these economies.

During the 1890s in the United States, Midwestern YMCA missionaries challenged the nexus of power between Northeastern Protestant denominations, industrialists, politicians, and the Association's International Committee. Under Kansas YMCA secretary George Fisher, this movement shook the Northeastern alliance's underpinnings, eventually establishing the Gospel Missionary Union. The YMCA and the GMU mutually defined foreign and domestic missionary work discursively. Whereas Fisher's pre-millennial movement promoted world conversion generally, the YMCA primarily reached out to college students in the United States and abroad. Moreover, the GMU challenged social and gender roles among Moroccan Berbers. Fisher's movements have not been historically analyzed since 1975. Missionary Millennium is a reanalysis and critical reading of religious fictions about GMU missionaries, following the organization to its current incarnation as Avant Ministries.

The thesis examines the comprehensive relationship between all aspects of financial liberalisation and economic growth in three countries from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Employing ARDL bounds test approach and real GDP per capita as growth indicator; the thesis finds support in favour of the McKinnon-Shaw hypothesis but also finds that the increases in the subsequent savings and investments have not been transmitted into economic growth in two of the studied countries. Moreover, the thesis also finds that stock market developments have negligible or negative impact on economic growth in two of the selected countries. The thesis concludes that in most cases, it is not financial liberalisation polices that affect economic growth in the selected ECOWAS countries, but rather increase in the productivity of labour, increase in the credit to the private sector, increase in foreign direct investments, increase in the capital stock and increase in government expenditure contrary to expectations. Interestingly, the thesis also finds that export has only negative effect on economic growth in all the selected ECOWAS countries. The thesis therefore, recommends that long-term export diversification programmes be implemented in the ECOWAS regions whilst further investigation is carried on the issue. / Economic Sciences / D. Litt et Phil. (Economics)

La linguistique historique et comparative joue un rôle important dans l’étude de l’histoire culturelle des sociétés. Dans ce cadre, certains spécialistes se basent sur la méthode de reconstruction lexicale « Wörter und Sachen » (Mots et Choses). Afin de répondre aux problèmes qui se présentent lors de l’application de cette méthodologie, nous avons jugé utile d’étudier le vocabulaire lié à une technique récente dont l’histoire est assez bien connue. Une étude pareille montre comment le lexique s’est constitué et identifie les traces laissées éventuellement par l’histoire de la technique elle-même. Le choix s’est porté sur le lexique de la fonte de l’aluminium en zarma et en hausa du Niger. La recherche témoigne d’une approche empirique et sociolinguistique et l’étude des vocabulaires est abordée partant du principe onomasiologique du changement lexical. Le cœur du travail consiste en l’analyse des vocabulaires récoltés sur le terrain suivant une typologie nouvelle du changement lexical. Une description synthétique des deux langues est fournie afin de permettre au lecteur de se familiariser avec ces systèmes linguistiques. L’étude de quelques cas particuliers montre comment les aspects sociaux influencent indéniablement la constitution des lexiques. La comparaison des lexiques de la fonte dans les langues du Niger avec ceux qui ont été observés dans d’autres langues de l’Afrique occidentale donne l’opportunité de réfléchir sur la nature du vocabulaire de la fonte de façon plus générale. Dans la dernière partie de l’étude d’autres lexiques techniques sont pris en compte afin de progresser vers une théorie plus globale.<p><p>/Historical and comparative linguistics plays an important role in the study of a society’s cultural history. In this context, some specialists follow the method of lexical reconstruction "Wörter und Sachen" (Words and Things). In order to deal with the problems that occur in the application of this methodology, we found it useful to study the lexicon of a recent technique for which the history is quite well known. Such a research shows how the vocabulary is constituted and identifies the traces that might be left by the history of the technique itself. We chose the vocabulary of aluminium casting in Zarma and Hausa of Niger. The study testifies of an empirical and sociolinguistic approach, while the vocabulary is explored starting from the onomasiological principal of lexical change. The main part consists of an analysis of the vocabularies collected in the field through a new typology of lexical change. In order to give the reader the occasion to familiarise with the linguistic system of the two languages, a brief grammatical description is given. The study of some particular cases shows how social aspects influence the constitution of the lexicon. The comparison of the casting vocabularies in the languages of Niger with those observed in other West-African countries gives the opportunity to reflect upon the nature of casting vocabulary on a larger scale. The last part of the study takes into account other technical vocabularies in order to develop a global theory.<p> / Doctorat en Langues et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The thesis examines the comprehensive relationship between all aspects of financial liberalisation and economic growth in three countries from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Employing ARDL bounds test approach and real GDP per capita as growth indicator; the thesis finds support in favour of the McKinnon-Shaw hypothesis but also finds that the increases in the subsequent savings and investments have not been transmitted into economic growth in two of the studied countries. Moreover, the thesis also finds that stock market developments have negligible or negative impact on economic growth in two of the selected countries. The thesis concludes that in most cases, it is not financial liberalisation polices that affect economic growth in the selected ECOWAS countries, but rather increase in the productivity of labour, increase in the credit to the private sector, increase in foreign direct investments, increase in the capital stock and increase in government expenditure contrary to expectations. Interestingly, the thesis also finds that export has only negative effect on economic growth in all the selected ECOWAS countries. The thesis therefore, recommends that long-term export diversification programmes be implemented in the ECOWAS regions whilst further investigation is carried on the issue. / Economics / D. Litt et Phil. (Economics)